Mormon wives Taylor and Dakota’s tumultuous relationship

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ tyler frankie paul and Dakota Mortensen They’ve never shied away from addressing their tumultuous and often rocky relationship before a domestic dispute arose.

Ahead of the show’s September 2024 premiere on Hulu, Tyler and Dakota Start dating after divorce from husband Tate Paul Due to the high-profile “soft swing” sex scandal. Dakota and Tyler’s relationship went through ups and downs after Tyler was arrested for domestic violence before they started a family with son Ivor in March 2024.

Taylor, for her part, expressed hope that the series would provide a deeper understanding of her life outside of her arrest. The reality star also shares children Indy and Ocean with Tate, Later she admitted she was surprised Season 1 didn’t show Dakota’s “softer side.”

“My feeling about him is that that’s not shown on the show,” she exclusively told US Weekly then. “It really came across as defensive. So he said, ‘When you were pregnant, I looked like a jerk to you — and that’s not how I’ve been treating you. Yes, I do defend myself in certain situations, but that’s not who I am to you.'”

After reality show success, Taylor and Dakota Experienced countless breakups and reconciliation. For the Dakotas, the hardest part was addressing their issues in a public forum.

In June 2025, he told “The Viall Files” podcast: “I’m so scared of how much I like Taylor and how scared she is, and I know I don’t know what she really wants or if this is going to be a thing. I don’t really necessarily want to give her 100 percent of me because I’m afraid of that. I don’t want to get hurt by it because that’s who I am. When I give it my all, I give it my all.” “

In March 2026, after news broke that Taylor and Dakota were involved in a domestic violence dispute during filming, The Mormon Wives allegedly halted production on season five, and the two ended up facing more legal issues. A spokesperson for the Draper Police Department confirmed that an open “domestic violence investigation” is ongoing into the pair.

Keep scrolling to see Taylor and Dakota’s most telling quotes about their dynamic:

defend her in the public eye

Dakota Mortensen is Taylor Frankie Paul’s first public boyfriend since her divorce. Tate Paul. After nearly a year of dating, Taylor was arrested for domestic violence in February 2023. She was ultimately charged with aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury and criminal mischief subsequent to the incident. Six months later, Taylor pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and the other four charges were dismissed with prejudice. She reached a plea deal the following month.

Dakota told the Daily Mail at the time that Taylor would never “intentionally” hurt anyone, adding, “She’s a good mom and she’s been through a lot in her life right now. Taylor has been struggling and it’s been a tough year for her. She feels guilty about her affair.”

He elaborated on this in a June 2025 episode of the “Viall Files” podcast. “It was a really scary thing that night. What you want to talk about is, like, ‘What do you do?’ That’s what it felt like,” he recalled. “I did take a video because I didn’t know what was going to happen. My truck was in the garage. I couldn’t leave. I tried to leave. It was too bad.”

dakota Claims Taylor was ‘absolutely hammered’ Adding, “The moment we walked into the house it became the craziest thing ever.”

Document their highs and lows

Despite a few on-screen fights, Tyler Frankie Paul is confident about his future with Dakota Mortensen, sharing on The Mormon Wife Season 1, “Dakota, he’s been a great partner in this process and very supportive.”

She continued: “I’m like on cloud nine, it’s the first time I’ve ever felt so confident about our future. I just – I wish I could believe in him.”

At the time, Taylor admitted to us, She was in no rush to get engaged to Dakota.

“I just want to take my time this time, this is my second marriage. It’s very important to me and I don’t want to be stuck in a divorce again,” she explained. “So, I really just want everything to be really solid and have a foundation of trust. So I feel like it’s going to take time. I want that to be the ultimate goal. But right now, I think building it up is where I am.”

Watch their energetic backs

“It’s been really hard for me to watch[Dakota and I’s ups and downs]because it’s all such real feelings. None of it is made up, it’s not staged, it’s not nothing. It’s all real,” Tyler Frankie Paul told Us in October 2024 after The Mormon Wife season 1 was released. “So it’s really hard for me to look back. That was probably one of the most difficult moments.”

Taylor said she was unsure about the status of her relationship with Dakota Mortensen at the time.

“I would say we’re working on something and I actually don’t know where we’re going to go next. We’re not quite together yet, but we’re not quite done either. I don’t know where the future is for him and me,” she admitted. “It’s too much. So I’m dealing with it and trying to cope. But I don’t want to watch the show.”

dealing with the reality show aspect of their relationship.

“I know a lot of people (don’t understand this) from an audience perspective, there’s a big difference between having everything out to the world and going directly to the people you care about or your family and telling them something,” Dakota Mortensen explained on the “Viall Files” podcast in June 2025. “Like, you want to talk about fear, it’s the scariest feeling in the world.”

He continued: “And then to do it on a show, you can’t control it. If they miss something, it’s not what it was. That’s really hard for me to understand. It’s hard to understand. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be burned by the world for this. I just want to be with you where I can talk to you. I want a safe place to talk.’ But that’s not the case.”

Dakota also reflects on early His relationship with Tyler Frankie Paul.

“Very early on I was like, ‘What are we?’ because I just didn’t know. I could tell there was something inside me that liked her. I knew that, and it scared me so much. So there was also the point where I didn’t want her to hurt me,” he explained. “That’s the sad part – I was the one hurting her. I think part of it was probably me sabotaging it. I was so scared of how much I liked Taylor and how scared I was of her, and I knew I didn’t really know what she wanted or liked, if that could be a thing.”

Try to break the cycle

After several breakups, Tyler Frankie Paul chose to cut ties with Dakota Mortensen and head off to film Season 22 of The Bachelorette.

“It’s hard because I’m obviously a part of it — it’s not like I’m pointing the finger, ‘He’s (toxic).’ It takes two to tango. We’re just not progressing,” she shared with Us in March 2026. “We like each other sometimes, and then we fight. It’s really hard to explain to people, unless you’ve been in that situation, it’s hard to understand. If I could pull myself together, trust me, I would, it’s just harder said than done.”

When asked what was going on in their relationship, Taylor reflected to Us, “Honestly, I think it’s still the same cycle that I’ve been going through for a while, and it’s been really hard to break out of. … It’s been hard to get myself out of that cycle.”

Taylor also admitted she didn’t know what to do Call their relationship at the time.

“I don’t even know. I have to keep asking myself that question (about where we stand),” she told CNN in a cover story interview conducted days before the February 2026 dispute. “Where do we stand? I don’t know. Ask me tomorrow.”