What Taylor Frankie Paul's Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives Co-Stars Have Said About Her

The following includes references to eating disorders and domestic abuse.

Throughout four seasons of the hit Hulu show "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," the cast of Utah-based "MomTok" influencers have acknowledged Taylor Frankie Paul as their leader — but that doesn't mean everything they've said about her has been positive. The mother of three is also arguably the most controversial member of the friend group. She has had an on-and-off-again relationship with her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen since Season 1 of "TSLOMW," and the pilot episode, filmed in February 2023, ended with her getting arrested for assaulting Mortensen. Paul pled guilty to aggravated assault for the incident in August 2023 in exchange for other charges being dismissed. 

Paul has also been filmed screaming at her co-stars for not telling her about Mortensen's hookups while they were broken up, and has been late for career-related events. After Paul completed filming Season 22 of "The Bachelorette," a video of the 2023 incident filmed by Mortensen leaked to TMZ three days before the show's planned premiere. Disney (the parent company of Hulu and ABC) announced it was cancelling the season on March 19, 2026, the same day of the leak.

After "The Bachelorette" cancellation, fans started screaming for another member of MomTok to take the lead on the dating show. As for Paul's past behavior — which also includes a 2026 investigation into another alleged domestic incident with Mortensen that's still open at the time of this writing — other members of MomTok have seen it off camera for years, and one even warned ABC to prepare a backup plan for "The Bachelorette." Here's everything the "Mormon Wives" costars have said about Paul, which Disney probably should have listened to.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

On "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" Season 4 finale, titled "The Book of Thorns and Roses," Jessi Draper (who publicly goes by her maiden name since her estranged husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, filed for divorce in March 2026) predicted the fate of Taylor Frankie Paul's "Bachelorette" season when she realized that Paul wasn't going to make it on her plane to Los Angeles to go film the show. At that point, she and some of her co-stars knew that Paul and Mortensen had slept together the night before. "Does ABC have a backup plan?" she said while in the airport with some MomTok co-stars. The women had tried to encourage Paul as she embarked on her ill-fated journey to find love. "This is so bad. Taylor is like an addict when it comes to Dakota. We're just trying to help her," Draper added in a confessional interview.

When Draper and some other members of MomTok went to Paul's house to encourage her to get on a later flight, she admonished Paul, saying she shouldn't have taken the opportunity to be on "The Bachelorette" if she didn't feel up to doing it. Paul did catch a later flight and film the whole "Bachelorette" season.

Days before ABC canceled Paul's season of the dating show in March 2026, "TSLOMW" paused filming amid the new investigation into Mortensen and Paul. Draper addressed online speculation that the other members of the cast might be jealous of the opportunities Paul was getting and had banded together. "It was never a jealousy thing lol," she commented on influencer Zack Peter's video on Instagram.

Mayci Neeley's memoir release took a backseat to the toxicity between Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen on Season 4 of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives." Leading up to Paul filming her "Bachelorette" season, Neeley and others tried to get her to meet other men to get used to dating, only to have Mortensen show up and thwart the attempts. 

Fans also saw some members of MomTok hold a meeting to discuss how to handle telling Paul that Mortensen hooked up with another woman without making her rage so intensely that she ruined her opportunity on "The Bachelorette." It's alarming to watch (Paul does yell at her friends after she learns of the hookup from Mortensen). But on a March 2026 episode of the "Comments by Celebs" podcast (recorded before "SLOMW" paused production), Neeley revealed that she's been seeing Paul behave that way for years, and fans hadn't seen how bad it could get. "I do see her like that pretty often, if I'm being completely honest," Neeley said, adding that she believed Paul got a kind edit on Season 3.

The public can only guess how Paul's "Bachelorette" season ended, considering the investigation into the alleged 2026 incident between her and Mortensen when she got home. But Neeley had a guess in "TSLOMW" Season 4 finale. "She's going to choose Dakota, who's been kind of ruining her life for the last three years, over something that is a fresh start," Neeley said in a confessional.

Mikayla Matthews was dealing with marital and health issues on Season 4 of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," but she still tried to support and prepare Taylor Frankie Paul before she filmed "The Bachelorette." On the "Comments by Celebs" podcast in March 2026, Matthews said that sabotaging opportunities is a "common theme" in Paul's life, which she said others might relate to if they were going through similar stress. 

"Taylor's been in this way for a while, that she's been ruining her opportunities for Dakota, for these men, because she's not healed," the mom of four said. She added that throughout the season, she was trying to be a good friend to Paul and encourage her to find a healthy romance on "The Bachelorette." Days later, when it was announced that "SLOMW" had paused filming amid Paul and Mortenson's domestic investigation, Matthews said on social media that the women decided together to stop filming Season 5. "We didn't feel comfortable filming with everything that was happening," she explained (via People). 

While pursuing a modeling career and struggling with an eating disorder, which she bravely talked about on camera, Layla Taylor supported Taylor Frankie Paul's journey toward "The Bachelorette." Reflecting on joining Mayci Neeley, Jessi Draper, and Mikayla Matthews at Paul's house to try to encourage her to get on a flight to Los Angeles in "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" Season 4 finale, Layla said, "The last thing that we need is our leader, Taylor, to be falling apart as well [as everything we're going through in our own lives]. I just feel like she's kind of the glue to this group, and if she's not doing well, then MomTok is not doing well either."

Layla was also one of the few "SLOMW" cast members to speak out against domestic violence on social media amid Paul's "Bachelorette" season getting cancelled and the open domestic violence investigation between Paul and Dakota Mortensen. "My personal history as a survivor makes it impossible for me to stay silent," Taylor wrote on her Instagram Stories on March 20. "I stand firmly against domestic violence in any form. I keep her children in my thoughts, hoping for their safety above all else."

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Miranda Hope was reluctantly involved in Taylor Frankie Paul's drama with Dakota Mortensen on Season 4 of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" because the woman that Mortensen slept with was Hope's friend. "It's no secret that Taylor and I have kind of been through hell. I mean, it's been one thing after the next, it seems," she said in a confessional interview in the finale. Asked by a producer off-camera who should lead MomTok, Hope said, "Personally, maybe we just raw dog MomTok, no leader."

She also released a statement condemning domestic violence on her Instagram Story on March 20. "Everything has been really tough to see," she wrote. "Domestic violence and abuse of any kind is something I take very seriously. As a human, and especially as a mother, I cannot support that kind of behavior." Hope added that she hoped Paul's kids were safe and loved amid the controversy.

Whitney Leavitt filmed the majority of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" Season 4 in Los Angeles, where she was competing on "Dancing with the Stars" Season 34. So, she wasn't in Utah to see Taylor Frankie Paul's turmoil play out. But, Leavitt told E! News in September 2025 after the news that Paul was leading "The Bachelorette" that her co-star was "gonna crush it" on the dating show. 

"I know so many more people are gonna tune into that, I know I am," she continued. "I haven't watched 'The Bachelorette' in forever." When asked if her castmate had a "type," Leavitt said Paul might go for "someone that recognizes her resilience and the woman that she is and doesn't take advantage of it." Leavitt began starring as Roxie Hart in "Chicago" on Broadway in February 2026, and  Paul attended her opening night alongside many other members of MomTok a month before her "Bachelorette" scandal. As of this writing, Leavitt hasn't made a statement about anything related to Paul's 2026 controversy. 

"The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" star Jen Affleck was competing against Whitney Leavitt on "Dancing with the Stars" Season 34 in Los Angeles when Season 4 of the Hulu show was filmed. So, she also missed watching Taylor Frankie Paul's emotional rollercoaster with her ex Dakota Mortensen before Paul went to Los Angeles to film "The Bachelorette." But in an interview with Today in November 2025 (while Paul was mid-production on the dating show), Affleck said she thought the MomTok leader would save the "dying" dating show franchise. 

She recalled musing about Paul reviving it. "I was like, 'If Taylor went on there, I think she would save the franchise, and that's exactly what happened. I think I manifested it for her," Affleck said. Of course, the influencer couldn't have predicted the demise of Paul's season, but she probably regrets making such an extreme prediction now. In fairness to her, there are a few other shady topics hidden among Paul's suitors, whom the world might never meet via reality TV.

Demi Engemann had a diminished role on "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" Season 4 and quit filming mid-season. But, she appeared to throw shade at Taylor Frankie Paul (and possibly other former cast members) in an Instagram Story published on March 19, 2026, the day the video of Paul leaked and her season of "The Bachelorette" was canceled. Engemann reposted text that said, "The bills are paid. My husband is hot. Our marriage is strong. The kids are happy & healthy. I feel so damn rich." Underneath the post she wrote, "My version of peace that no one could ever destroy no matter how hard some have tried," adding emojis. "The best revenge truly is living well. I'll die on that hill forever." Per Page Six, she eventually deleted the post, and a source claimed it wasn't aimed at Paul.

Before Paul's latest controversy, Engemann was taking the brunt of bad publicity for the cast because she was sued for defamation by "Vanderpump Villa" star Marciano Brunette in December 2025. No matter who Engemann was swiping at, her post wasn't going to be well-received. Many "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" cast members have gone through tragedies on camera, herself included, and unlike the posts condemning domestic abuse and emphasizing the safety of children who are potentially victims, Engemann's post was in bad taste.