Doug Mason is recalling the moment he met Taylor Frankie Paul’s children on the unaired season 22 of The Bachelorette.
“When I met her children, I knew it was an important moment,” Doug, 28, said during the Tuesday, October 13, episode of Charity Lawson and Rachel Recchia’s “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “You can’t prepare for kids. Kids are crazy. Kids are so fun. And kids can tell if you got something up. If there’s something in your head, they can tell it right away like an animal. Just automatically. Like, you cannot lie to your dog. Ever lie to a dog? That’s not happening. You kidding me? They’re like BS. Right when they see you, BS.”
Doug explained that he loves children, sharing that he thinks of kids as “the future” and “the next level of life.” The California lifeguard pointed out that he had also been a junior instructor for years.
“So I’m used to children and they’re fun,” he said. “Hello, life is fun. Why is it so heavy? Let’s have a good time. So kids and I, we’ve got along. Of course, I knew I’d like her kids because I liked Taylor. So therefore, I knew [they are a] direct reflection of their mother. She didn’t prepare me for that. I just walked in and I’d basically sink or swim. And we swam. We were swimming laps in that experience. I had a great time with the kids. They’re lovely.”
Taylor is the mother of daughter Indy, 9, and son Ocean, 6, whom she shares with ex-husband Tate Paul and son Ever, 2, whom she welcomed with ex Dakota Mortensen. Doug recalled being “terrified” of taking that next step with Taylor and becoming part of her family, noting he had been mentally preparing himself for that chapter.
“But I called it upon myself. I thought, ‘No, no, you can handle this. What kind of man are you?’ I was having moments at home. ‘What kind of man are you? Are you willing to put yourself in her life, and fully in her life?’ So I would ask myself that every day,” he recalled. “And before I met her children, I was ready to meet her kids. I didn’t walk in there. ‘We’ll see how it goes.’ Nah, I knew I was ready, but it was exhausting, mentally draining, emotional. The emotional toll it took on me was a lot. However, I was extremely genuine throughout the entire process.”
News broke in March that Taylor’s season 22 of The Bachelorette was pulled from ABC’s lineup days before its premiere amid a domestic violence investigation into an alleged incident involving Taylor and Dakota. The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to press charges against Taylor and Dakota, who denied all allegations. Taylor has since been involved in two separate child custody battles with Dakota and Tate.
“Afterwards, I’ll just touch on it briefly, I supported Taylor,” Doug recalled. “I didn’t know she was talking about me. I didn’t know her friends were talking about me on her season. But I fully supported her because I remembered what it felt like in that moment. Also, it’s a lot to introduce your family to all these guys. So I saw it from her side too. But yeah, it was draining. But yes, to answer your question, I was fully invested once I met her children and her parents and her ex. We met off camera.”
When Doug met Tate off camera, he recalled it was during “the most exhausting week mentally” in his life.
“I don’t need to do the timeline, however, when I met Tate, he asked me the same question that you asked me, Charity — ‘You ready for this? ‘Cause it’s a lot. I live it every day. Being with Taylor will change your life,’” he said during the Tuesday episode. “So he really wanted to look in my eyes and see my sincerity. And like I said, at that point, I was all in. I was not going to BS. I’m not a BS-er. It was just as clear as day, this is going to be my life. So it was draining to talk to him for sure. I left that room [and was like], ‘I need 10. I need 10 minutes.’”
While ABC has yet to make a formal decision about airing Taylor’s season 22 of The Bachelorette, she confirmed during season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that she got engaged to Doug. In the Hulu series, however, Taylor had doubts after hooking up with Dakota multiple times and pursuing a connection with ex Ben Lambert and ultimately ended things with Doug.
