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| Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen: Are the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Stars Still Together? |
Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen are no longer together, despite the complicated history that kept pulling them back towards each other on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Their relationship has effectively ended, but their connection has not disappeared entirely. With their son Ever at the centre of their shared parenting responsibilities and an ongoing custody dispute, there is still plenty tying the former couple together.
Taylor and Dakota’s relationship began in 2022, after Taylor’s divorce from Tate Paul, and it quickly became one of the most turbulent storylines surrounding Taylor’s life. Their early years together included major emotional setbacks, a pregnancy loss and a difficult period that resulted in Dakota filing assault charges against Taylor in 2023. The pair later reconciled, worked through the legal situation and eventually welcomed their son Ever in March 2024.
For a while, it appeared that Taylor and Dakota had found a way to make their relationship work. That calm did not last particularly long. Taylor later discovered that Dakota had allegedly been unfaithful with a woman named Jenna, prompting her to end the relationship. Breaking up, however, was considerably easier in theory than in practice. Sharing a child meant Dakota could not simply disappear from Taylor’s life, while his connections to the DadTok community also kept him within the same social orbit.
That complicated dynamic became particularly obvious during season 4. Taylor’s friends repeatedly encouraged her to use the opportunity to move forward, especially as she prepared for the possibility of joining The Bachelorette. Instead, the relationship continued to behave like a television plot that refused to accept its cancellation. Taylor became upset after learning that Dakota had gone on a date with Shinia Powell without telling her, adding another layer of tension to an already messy situation.
Before Taylor left, she and Dakota spent one final night together. Then, after she returned from filming The Bachelorette, Taylor called Dakota and the two reconciled once again. It was another twist in a relationship that had already survived enough break-ups and reunions to make anyone reaching for a relationship flowchart quietly give up.
Season 5 brought another major development when Taylor acknowledged that she had been unfaithful to her then-fiancé, Doug Mason. Her friends were understandably unhappy with the situation and pushed her to finally step away from what they regarded as a damaging cycle with Dakota. Taylor defended her choices, even clashing with some of the people closest to her, and insisted that she was determined to move forward on her own terms.
The situation changed dramatically in 2026 after a video showing the pair’s 2023 altercation was leaked publicly. The footage prompted an investigation involving Taylor, while her season of The Bachelorette was pulled amid the controversy.
Dakota subsequently sought a temporary restraining order and was granted sole custody of Ever in March 2026. At a further custody hearing in April, Taylor was granted supervised visitation, while she also sought and received a restraining order against Dakota.
Their circumstances have shifted since then, but there has been no return to their previous romantic relationship. Reports indicate that Taylor and Dakota are no longer speaking directly, with communication believed to be taking place through family members while their custody dispute continues. Taylor’s parenting time with Ever was expanded again in July 2026, suggesting that the arrangements have continued to change as the legal process moves forward.
Dakota has also publicly acknowledged his part in the troubled relationship while disputing aspects of how the story has been portrayed. He said he regretted not walking away from the difficult cycle earlier and apologised to people he had hurt, while also saying that the public version did not capture the complete context or the effect the situation had on him and his son. His comments underline just how far the relationship has moved from the on-and-off romance viewers once watched unfold.
Romantically, the two appear to have gone their separate ways as well. Dakota has been dating Shinia Powell since January 2026, while Taylor has been linked with other people and has reportedly started dating again. Whatever remained between Taylor and Dakota romantically appears to have finally run its course, leaving co-parenting as the main reason their lives remain connected.
Taylor has continued building her own career away from the relationship drama. As one of the leading figures associated with MomTok, she has developed a substantial social media following and remains one of the most recognisable personalities connected with The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Her appearance on The Bachelorette season 22 also expanded her reality television profile, although that chapter became complicated by the controversy surrounding the leaked video. Away from the cameras, Taylor remains focused on her children, including Indy, Ocean and Ever.
Dakota, meanwhile, has pursued a career outside reality television and social media. He owns Basin Tiling, a business serving customers in Idaho and Utah, while continuing to maintain a presence within the DadTok world. His public image has increasingly centred on fatherhood, with parenting and family remaining a major part of the content he shares.
The biggest takeaway from Taylor and Dakota’s story is that being finished romantically does not necessarily mean being finished with each other. They can move on from the relationship while still having to navigate the much more complicated reality of raising a child together. Their history has involved reconciliation, arguments, accusations, new partners and legal disputes, so expecting everything to suddenly become wonderfully tidy would probably be asking a bit much.
The most striking part of this entire saga is how many times Taylor and Dakota managed to circle back to each other. Every time it looked as though the door had finally closed, someone appeared to leave it slightly ajar. The problem is that a relationship can survive plenty of drama on television because the episode eventually ends; real life does not have that convenient closing credit sequence.
Once a child, family members and legal arrangements are involved, walking away becomes considerably more complicated. From the outside, the 2026 developments look less like another chapter in their romance and more like the point where both finally have to deal with the consequences of years of instability. There is also something strangely exhausting about watching two people repeatedly try the same formula and expect a different result.
Taylor and Dakota now appear to be living separate romantic lives, and perhaps that distance is exactly what their situation needed. Whether they can eventually establish a calmer co-parenting relationship remains the bigger question. Do you think their relationship is finally over for good, or could another unexpected twist still be waiting?