"From Mormon Wife to Bachelorette: The Unveiled Journey of Taylor Frankie Paul | Vanity Fair"
“I sometimes question, Have I made any progress?” Taylor Frankie Paul, who in just three short years leapt from being the leader of #MomTok on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives to the single lead of ABC’s The Bachelorette, asks Vanity Fair. “We’re humans, we make mistakes; and I feel like I do [make] a lot of different mistakes. That’s what life’s about—it’s trial and error. I’m learning different lessons now in this phase of my life.”
Paul’s latest chapter plays out on season three of the wildly popular Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which reveals that while promoting the show’s second season this spring, Paul privately suffered personal betrayal involving on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, father of her one-year-old son, Ever True. When I reach Paul, she’s in the backseat of a moving vehicle, being whisked from one mystery location to another for her turn on The Bachelorette. Paul can’t technically disclose that she’s not near home, but the palm trees peeking through the car’s back windows confirm: We’re not in Utah anymore.
Since 2022, when Paul, now 31, revealed she was divorcing husband Tate (father of Paul’s daughter Indy and son Ocean, who do not appear on Mormon Wives), after she engaged in “soft swinging” (some heavy petting and emotional affairs, but no “full-on” sex) within their married friend group, she has been filming her life at a near-continuous pace.
Before sending shockwaves through Utah’s #MomTok community, Paul already shared near-daily snippets of her more buttoned-up Mormon life with what eventually grew to 1.8 million Instagram and 5.8 million TikTok followers. When the first season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives premiered last September, it launched the eight MomTokers, led by the headline-making Paul, to something approaching Housewives-level fame.
“Sorry if I sound like I’m losing my voice. We’re getting over a little cold,” Paul rasps. The “we” is another reminder that, as the single mother of three who blew up her life and then made a reality show about it, Paul is far from an obvious pick for ABC’s increasingly staid reality dating series—but more on that adventure later.
First, Paul must relive the last six months of her life on Mormon Wives season three, which begins with her learning of a family member’s cancer diagnosis and ends with allegations that her now ex-boyfriend Mortensen exchanged flirtatious messages with a confidant of Liann, Paul’s mother. (On the series, Mortensen and the unnamed woman admit to corresponding, but dispute specific details about the exact nature of their interactions.) It was a brutal blow to Paul and Mortensen’s already fragile relationship, which included a domestic dispute that resulted in Paul pleading guilty to aggravated assault in 2023 and being sentenced to three years probation. “It doesn’t define who you are. Get up and try to do better rather than stick in a hole, like, Oh, I already made mistakes, let’s get shittier and shittier,” Paul says.
But Mortensen’s inability to extricate himself from his own destructive patterns has put a strain on his co-parenting relationship with Paul. “There are times where it gets confusing because at [his] core, Dakota, somewhere in there, is a good person,” she explains. “And I have to remind him, ‘Just because you did this doesn’t mean you have to get shittier.’ Yes, I get so angry with him, but at the end of the day, you have to be a hurt person to do the things that you have done, and so I feel for him. I’m like, ‘Honestly, I just hope you find your way,’ because (in the salient words of one recently liberated Lily Allen) everything you do on me is not me; it’s a projection of you.”
Plus, Paul has pinpointed a few of Mortensen’s less desirable traits—like his habit of messing with her head right before a major career milestone, which plays out on season three when Mortensen tries to rekindle things just before Paul’s interview for a potential slot on Dancing With the Stars. (Castmates Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt wound up with the gig.) “I have Jimmy Kimmel tonight,” she says during another episode. “This is a huge opportunity for MomTok and myself and I have yet to even be present and enjoy it due to my fucking shit show of a baby daddy. Period.”
So, is he playing any mind games right now? Paul replies with a slightly defeated chuckle, “It’s been hard, yes.” (Vanity Fair has reached out to Mortensen for comment.)
While navigating her own romantic complications this season, Paul advises castmate Jessi Ngatikaura, who admits to having an emotional affair with Vanderpump Villa’s Marciano Brunette following a cast trip to Italy, where season two of the Hulu show was filmed. As Jessi and husband Jordan contemplate the future of their marriage, Paul offers her support to both parties. “Regardless of if [a separation] is the right decision, it’s going to be painful,” she says, recalling her own split in her late 20s. “I root for someone’s family [to stay together], if that’s what they want.”
This season, the men of Mormon Wives become increasingly involved in the drama —even posting #DadTok content from their on-camera hangouts meant to rival their wives’ social media output. “Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes they’re so annoying and cringey, as we can see,” says Paul. “But there are some great men in there, like Jace [Mikayla Matthews’s husband], and Jacob [Mayci Neeley’s husband]. And for Jordan, he’s allowed to feel his pain [about Jessi] because most of us are screaming to feel heard, and that doesn’t mean we’re right, but we just want to be listened to.” She stops herself with a sly grin: “And I’m the last person, obviously, anyone should be [going to], if they’re trying to get relationship advice….”
Paul’s romantic baggage looms over her season of The Bachelorette, which premieres March 22, 2026. How would she react if Mortensen stepped out of the limo to join her crop of suitors? “Not shocked at all. He always tells me he still loves me and I’ve always been the one for him,” she says warily, “that I am his quote, unquote, ‘true love forever.’ I don’t know how I’d react honestly.”
Regardless of who she ends up with, Paul knows one thing for certain: If a man is keen to join her highly publicized world, it’s a red flag. “I have very good intuition,” she continues. “Do I always listen to it? Clearly not, or I wouldn’t have been in the positions I’ve been in.”
Paul being cast as the Bachelorette was a total surprise. The franchise hasn’t looked outside its pool of existing players since 2020, when Matt James, best friend of Bachelor Nation alum (and Gigi Hadid ex) Tyler Cameron, became the first-ever Black Bachelor. But after introducing a Mormon Wives crossover on Hulu’s Vanderpump Villa earlier this year, and then casting two #MomTok members on Dancing With the Stars, The Bachelorette is banking on Mormon Wives’ streaming-first audience to lure key viewership demographics back to ABC. And the franchise could use a shakeup: Bachelor in Paradise’s season 10 premiere earned roughly 3.2 million fewer viewers than season two of Mormon Wives, both of which aired this year.
On The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season three, it’s clear why reality TV producers tapped Paul to lead a potentially franchise-saving love story. She speaks frankly about her Mormonism, describing her relationship to religion as “living in the grey,” and she doesn’t shy away from bringing up sex: “Any of you guys done anal?” Paul asks unprompted during a group gathering with the other moms. “Just because I’m open about the majority of my life, doesn’t mean I have to open up about everyone else’s. Unless you do me dirty,” she says of her personal filming limits. “It’s no secret that I am going to call you out publicly, and I have no regrets there.”
During a September 10 appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, Paul discussed how religion relates to finding a partner: (potential husbands need not be Mormon, but must be open to making regular TikToks), but has stayed mum on politics. “When it comes to politics, it’s not something I openly like to talk about, and to be honest, I’m not defining people off that one way or the other,” she says. “I want to know you as a person, and that is what is going to define my view on you, right? Not your religion, not your political beliefs; who you are at [the] core, that’s what matters to me.”
Paul also wants to be embraced on her own terms—and despite her traditional upbringing, she isn’t angling to become a full-fledged tradwife anytime soon. After all, this is the same woman who disguises a store-bought apple pie as her own creation for season two’s “Great Mormon Bake-Off,” as judged by the husbands of #MomTok. Paul says she knows some of the famous tradwives, but not well enough to provide details. “I'm not a big reality TV girl, so when I do pass them, I probably don’t know who they are, even the social media ones,” Paul says. “Like, I met [Hannah Neeleman, also known for her social media handle, @BallerinaFarm] the other day, the one that I feel like a lot of people know. She lived in Utah as well. She has, I think, eight kids.”
In seasons past, including the recent Golden Bachelor installment, contestants have been villainized for admitting to influencer aspirations (formerly known as “not here for the right reasons”). Members of the franchise’s devoted fanbase, otherwise known as Bachelor Nation, may use the latest season of Mormon Wives either as evidence to support that Paul should be Bachelorette or definitive proof that she shouldn’t. “I am not your typical Bachelorette. That’s no secret at this point,” she says. “Here’s the thing: A lot of people go through a lot of shit in life, and not a lot of people would share it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I share it—take it or leave it. I’ve tried to showcase myself the same, both onscreen and off."
