Taylor Frankie Paul, a star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, cannot spend unsupervised time with her 2-year-old son due to a history of volatile behavior directed at the boy's father while kids were present, a Utah court commissioner ruled Tuesday. Third District Court Commissioner Russell Minas said, "I have concerns going both ways" about competing allegations between Dakota Mortensen and Paul, who was also set to star in the most recent season of The Bachelorette before it was pulled days before airing. "Even if he was trying to provoke a response," Minas said, "the actions that occurred are very troubling." The hearing set the stage for an April 30 court battle in which Minas will assess dueling petitions for protective orders between the pair, the AP reports.
Mortensen, who shares son Ever with Paul, has asked the court to turn a short-term protective order against his ex into a long-term one. Paul filed her own request just before Tuesday's hearing. Both participated remotely while their lawyers were in court. Lawyers for the two sides and a court-appointed attorney for Ever addressed several heated and sometimes violent interactions between the couple, some of which were caught on video. In one key video from 2023, Paul appeared to punch, kick, and throw chairs at Mortensen while her young daughter watched and cried. The leak of that video last month spurred the unprecedented move by ABC of shelving Paul's already-filmed season of The Bachelorette. It was also central to the first season of Mormon Wives, which has paused production on its fifth season amid the uproar.
Eric Swinyard, a lawyer for Paul, argued Tuesday that Mortensen was the aggressor in another fight from February that the lawyer called "the truck tussle." In his request for a protective order, Mortensen said Paul threw a drink at him as they argued in a truck to not wake children who were sleeping inside Paul's home. Swinyard said Mortensen slammed Paul's head into the dashboard and punched her in the leg, showing the court commissioner photos of her bruises. That and another fight around the same time are under investigation by police in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper City.
The sides generally agreed that Paul didn't intentionally direct violence at their son or her other two children from a previous relationship. At issue was her willingness to lash out at Mortensen in front of her children. Ever's court-appointed lawyer pointed to a May 2025 video that has not been released publicly. He said it shows Paul pushing Mortensen and shouting at him to get out of her house while he's holding the boy. Minas ordered that Paul can have eight hours per week of supervised visits with Ever, emphasizing it was a stopgap arrangement until the next hearing. Paul had primary custody of the boy before Mortensen got the temporary protective order.
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