Doug Mason found it difficult to navigate comparisons to Taylor Frankie Paul’s ex Dakota Mortensen amid his stint on The Bachelorette season 22.
“On this [group] date, I could not escape the Dakota comparisons. I walked that day,” Doug, 28, recalled during the Tuesday, October 13, episode of Rachel Recchia and Charity Lawson’s “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “Everything that we had up until that point was genuine and true.”
He continued, “But when the person that came in on that group date that day mentioned Dakota’s name, and said that I was compared to Dakota, Taylor’s energy completely shifted and saw me as the bad guy. She was almost looking at Dakota at me.”
Charity, however, questioned if Taylor truly saw Doug as “the bad guy,” or rather that he appeared to “resemble Dakota” physically and could fill “a void” in her life.
“I think overtime I realized that I was the replacement for that two month period,” Doug replied. “And the reason that’s true is because as she says, the night that she left the engagement, she went back to Dakota.”
He continued, “But speaking about this group date, the reason I dipped — it had nothing to do with the lady. It was when Taylor agreed with the lady. After everything I’ve said and done, it didn’t mean anything to her. I reminded her of Dakota. I reminded Taylor of Dakota because somebody else said that I reminded her of Dakota. And that was really disheartening.”
When Charity, 30, asked if he was hoping Taylor would “defend” him, Doug replied, “Yeah, I did Charity. I wanted Taylor to stand up for me in that moment.”
“When the person directed the … Basically, the insinuation that I represented everything that Dakota represented, that I would be bad for Taylor — is what she said, word for word. I wanted Taylor in that moment to say, ‘No, he’s a completely different person. Actually, we’ve had meaningful conversations about our families and life up to this point.’ But that was not said.”
He continued, “Therefore, I had to take myself out of that situation because I said, ‘No, no, this isn’t what I want.’ And I walked, I go outside, a few moments happen, producers come over, ‘Hey, this, this, this, she wants to talk to you again upstairs.’ I realize, I don’t want to leave that poor girl like that.”
Days before Taylor’s season 22 of The Bachelorette was slated to air on ABC in March, it was pulled from the network’s lineup amid a domestic violence investigation into an alleged incident involving her and Dakota.
Dakota has denied all allegations. The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to press charges against Taylor and Dakota. She has since been involved in two separate child custody battles with Dakota and her ex-husband, Tate Paul. (Taylor shares daughter Indy, 9, and son Ocean, 6, with Tate and son Ever, 2, with Dakota.)
While ABC has not made a formal decision about airing Taylor’s Bachelorette season, she confirmed during season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that she got engaged to Doug.
The Hulu series, which dropped last month, chronicled Taylor’s time after filming The Bachelorette and showed her having doubts after hooking up with Dakota and exploring a connection with ex Ben Lambert. Taylor ultimately “broke it off” with Doug.
