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| The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Are Dakota Mortensen and Emma Shippen Still Together? |
Dakota Mortensen and Emma Shippen are no longer together, with their brief relationship becoming another complicated chapter in the increasingly messy story surrounding Dakota and Taylor Frankie Paul. Their romance unfolded while Taylor was away filming a dating reality show, but by the time she returned, Dakota’s attention was already being pulled in a very different direction.
The relationship between Dakota and Emma appears to have begun publicly around December 2025, when Dakota reshared one of Emma’s TikToks. Comments from members of his DadTok circle soon fuelled speculation that the pair were more than friends. By January 2026, they had been seen together at a public event, seemingly confirming that something was going on.
The timing, however, was hardly straightforward. Taylor had left to film The Bachelorette, leaving Dakota and Emma to continue seeing each other. Yet Taylor’s return changed the situation considerably. Dakota has acknowledged that he became physically intimate with Taylor while he was still involved with Emma, despite Taylor being engaged to Doug Mason at the time. The resulting situation was about as uncomplicated as trying to assemble flat-pack furniture without the instructions.
As Dakota and Taylor became closer again, his relationship with Emma eventually came to an end. Dakota later told friends that he was not completely invested in the relationship with Emma and still had feelings for Taylor, giving a fairly direct explanation for why things fell apart. By around March 2026, further speculation suggested the two had gone their separate ways after an influencer claimed Dakota had been exchanging flirtatious messages with her.
Neither Dakota nor Emma has indicated that they remain part of each other’s lives, and there is little to suggest the pair have any intention of revisiting their relationship. Instead, both appear to have moved in different directions, leaving their short-lived romance as another footnote in the wider Secret Lives of Mormon Wives drama.
Dakota has since entered a new relationship with Shinia Powell, making the romance public in August 2026. He has appeared several times on Powell’s Instagram, suggesting that the pair are now very much comfortable being seen together. After everything that came before, Dakota seemingly has no shortage of material for another reality TV season.
Away from television, Dakota is a Utah-based real estate agent and construction company owner. His career has taken several turns, beginning with work as a bird farmer before he moved into construction and property. He previously appeared on NBC’s The Island with Bear Grylls in 2015 and later became better known through his connection to Taylor and the wider reality television world.
In 2026, Dakota also appeared on Unwell Winter Games, a four-episode reality competition produced by Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network. His television appearances have helped turn what was once a complicated personal life into something of a public career, with viewers now following his relationships almost as closely as his professional work.
Emma, meanwhile, has built her own career in fitness, social media and marketing. She currently works as a Manager on Duty at Barry’s and has previously held marketing and social media roles with Bucked Up and RVLock. Earlier positions included work at Kenect, giving her experience across content creation, brand representation, social media strategy and influencer marketing.
She also has a sporting background, having previously been part of the San Francisco 49ers’ Gold Rush. During her time at Utah State University, she combined cheerleading with track and field before earning a Bachelor of Science degree. In other words, Emma hardly needed Dakota’s storyline to keep her busy.
Fans’ reactions to the Dakota and Emma relationship have varied considerably. Some viewers see the situation as another example of Dakota and Taylor repeatedly being drawn back towards one another despite the complications surrounding them.
Others have been more sympathetic towards Emma, particularly given the timing of Dakota’s renewed closeness with Taylor. There are also viewers who simply seem exhausted by the entire romantic merry-go-round and would probably prefer everyone involved to have a quiet calendar year.
My take is that the most interesting part of this story is not really whether Dakota and Emma are still together, because that question has a fairly clear answer. They are not. What makes the situation worth discussing is how quickly the relationship became tangled in the much bigger Dakota-Taylor storyline. Emma entered the picture when Taylor was away filming, but once Taylor returned, the emotional centre of the story shifted almost immediately.
It also says something about reality television that a relationship can become a supporting plot point before viewers have even had enough time to properly understand it. Dakota and Emma apparently had their own connection, but the audience naturally viewed it through the much larger history between Dakota and Taylor. That makes Emma’s position particularly awkward, because she was never really given the luxury of being part of a simple romance. Instead, she became another character in an already crowded relationship drama.
There is also something almost comically predictable about the whole cycle. Dakota and Taylor have spent so much time moving towards each other, pulling apart and finding their way back into the same emotional territory that another relationship was always likely to become complicated. Emma moving on therefore feels less surprising than inevitable.
For Emma, though, there is plenty happening beyond this chapter. Her work in fitness, marketing and social media gives her a career that exists independently of reality television drama, while her background as an NFL cheerleader adds another interesting dimension to her public profile. Dakota, meanwhile, has now moved into a new relationship with Shinia, meaning the spotlight has shifted once again.
Ultimately, Dakota and Emma have moved on from each other, while Dakota’s latest romance appears to have taken centre stage. Whether that relationship lasts is another question entirely, particularly given his history on reality television. For now, Emma seems to be concentrating on her own career, while Dakota continues navigating life where personal relationships and public attention seem to have a habit of arriving together. What do you make of Dakota and Emma’s split, and do you think Dakota and Taylor’s complicated history played the biggest role in it?