Taylor Frankie Paul reportedly accused ex Dakota Mortensen of secretly meeting up with girls in explosive text messages from 2025.
The ongoing custody case between the former couple took another dramatic turn on Friday, July 10, when TMZ published text messages that Paul, 32, reportedly sent Mortensen, 33, in February 2025. Per the outlet, Paul grew frustrated when she repeatedly texted Mortensen to ask about his plans for the evening but he didn’t immediately answer.
Once Dakota responded that he was getting food, Paul allegedly accused him of lying, demanding to know who he was eating with.
“Who the f*** you with? F***ing sketch liar,” she allegedly wrote to him.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star allegedly branded Mortensen “wicked” in addition to insinuating that he wasn’t being honest about his meal companions.
“Nah, you’re with girls. K go with that,” Paul allegedly wrote.
Paul allegedly seemed reluctant to accept Mortensen’s explanation that he was getting pizza with a pal and his pal’s wife. However, Paul allegedly later texted Mortensen again to apologize for acting “nuts” and texting him “awful things.”
Us Weekly has reached out to both sides’ representatives for comment.
Paul and Mortensen were together on and off from 2022 to December 2024 and share son Ever, 2. A significant breakup occurred when Paul accused Mortensen of having inappropriate text conversations with one of her family friends last year.
In February, Paul and Mortensen were involved in a domestic violence investigation by Utah’s Draper City Police Department. Both publicly denied the allegations of domestic violence made by the other. (Paul’s season of The Bachelorette was pulled from ABC’s schedule due to the criminal investigation.)
Utah prosecutors elected to not press criminal charges against either Paul or Mortensen, effectively closing the domestic violence case.
Paul reacted to the favorable ruling via Instagram on April 15, writing, “Cried when I got the call 🙏 THANK YOU to those that have stood with me.”
Mortensen released his own statement in which he insisted that he’d actively “taken a step back and had time away from the chaos.”
“That space has been a breath of fresh air and has given me clarity. My focus now is where it should have been all along-on my son and creating a stable, healthy environment for him moving forward,” he wrote via Instagram at the time.
Mortensen went on, “I regret not stepping away from the difficult cycle sooner. I’m not perfect, and I take accountability for my part. I’m sincerely sorry to those I’ve hurt. At the same time, I don’t agree with how this situation has been portrayed publicly. It does not reflect the full context of what occurred or the impact it has had on me and my son.”
In April, Mortensen was awarded temporary custody of their son, Ever, with Paul allowed eight-hour weekly supervised visitation.
That same month, a judge issued mutual protective orders for both Mortensen and Paul, ordering them to stay 100 feet away from each other for a period of three years.
The former couple were back in a Utah courtroom this week, where their custody agreement was modified to allow Taylor to have more unsupervised time with Ever. (Mortensen will also have longer weekends due to this latest ruling.)
“For today, [I will] expand the weekends [for Taylor],” a judge decided. “Just to have the weekends carry over into Monday morning instead of Sunday evening.”
Meanwhile, Taylor has been dealing with a separate legal battle related to her and ex-husband Tate Paul’s custody agreement over daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 6. Her ex sought changes to their agreement because Taylor allegedly entered rehab without telling him. (Us confirmed on July 1 that Taylor voluntarily entered a rehab facility for a short stay and has since returned home.)
A judge struck down Tate’s initial motion before Taylor offered to take a sobriety test to regain more “unsupervised parent time” with her and Tate’s two children.
Taylor defended her decision to voluntarily enter rehab on Sunday, July 5, though she insisted she was not trying to “clear up any rumors.”
“I knew that I was in a spot to take a step back and be like, ‘OK, we need to reset,’” Paul said via her Instagram Story. “But facilities are not for just substance. … There are a list of reasons why people go into that. Number one priority was just a reset for my mental health, and to get away, decompress, whether it’s one day, whether it’s seven, whether it’s 30. I willingly did that.”
Amid the litany of legal issues, Us confirmed on Friday, July 10, that Taylor is returning to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives to film season 5’s opening title sequence but isn’t expected to shoot other scenes at this stage. (Filming on the Hulu show was initially paused in March amid Taylor and Mortensen’s domestic violence investigation.)
A source previously told Us in May that Taylor wanted to return to the reality show “at some point” but was “focused on her mental health.”
If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
