Taylor Frankie Paul

Introduction

Taylor Frankie Paul is a 32-year-old Utah TikTok influencer who rose to fame as the self-proclaimed founder of “MomTok” and became the central figure of the Hulu reality series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” In September 2026, she suffered a new legal setback in her custody battles: outlets citing TMZ reported that she allegedly failed multiple court-ordered drug tests in the previous 60 days, and that a court has since cut her parenting time to eight hours per week across her three children. It is the latest turn in a string of public reckonings — a 2023 domestic-violence arrest, a shelved TV season, a halted show season, and a co-star quitting rather than film alongside her.

Background Information

Paul built her following as part of MomTok, a collective of Utah-based Mormon mothers whose dance trends and lifestyle videos went viral on TikTok in 2020; her place in it collapsed into infamy in May 2022, when she revealed on a livestream that she and her then-husband, Tate Paul, had been “soft swinging” with other couples in their social circle — a confession that ended her marriage and fractured the group. She began an on-and-off relationship with Dakota Mortensen in 2022, and in February 2023 was arrested after a domestic incident; court records reviewed by NPR show she agreed to plead guilty to third-degree felony aggravated assault and has been serving 36 months of probation. She has three children: daughter Indy and son Ocean with ex-husband Tate Paul, and son Ever, born in 2024, with Mortensen. “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the Hulu show built around her MomTok circle, premiered in 2024; in March 2026, Disney pulled her already-filmed season of “The Bachelorette” after TMZ published video of the 2023 incident, and production on season 5 of “Mormon Wives” was halted.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from unnamed sources cited by TMZ, as relayed by Page Six and other outlets, in a family court matter under a strict gag order. The court documents have not been publicly reviewed by the outlets cited, nothing has been adjudicated, and sources close to Paul did not deny the claims but characterized the leak as harassment.

The current controversy is her custody litigation in Salt Lake City courts, fought on two fronts — against Tate Paul, whom she divorced in 2022, and against Mortensen. Tate’s case prompted a judge to impose drug and alcohol testing as the price for regaining unsupervised parenting time, and child protective services filed a July petition asking a court to determine that her children had been “abused, neglected or dependent,” per Reality Blurb’s account of court filings. On September 16-17, 2026, TMZ reported — and Page Six and the New York Post relayed — that sources close to the case say Paul failed multiple court-ordered drug tests within the last 60 days, that the alleged substances are unknown but at least one is not commonly available as a prescription medication, and that the court has since limited her to eight hours per week: four with Indy, 8, and Ocean, 6, and four with Ever, 2. The reports carry a major caveat: a strict gag order governs the case, Page Six could not review the court documents, and a source close to Paul told the outlet any leak is a “continuation of the harassment and intimidation” she has experienced through the battles.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequence is concrete: her parenting time, already supervised and truncated, has been cut to a fraction of normal custody arrangements — a reduction from the expanded schedule (one weekday plus alternating weekends) a judge had granted her at a July 8 hearing, per Page Six’s timeline. The professional fallout has compounded: in March 2026, Disney shelved her “Bachelorette” season entirely, stating, “In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time,” while her representative called the leaked video the work of a “never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor” — a claim Mortensen categorically denied, telling Entertainment Weekly he denies “these baseless claims about me and our relationship.” In July 2026 she had declined settlement proposals from both exes that would have granted her 40 percent of parenting time, asking, “So now I’m suddenly capable of parenting 40% of the time?” And as reports circulated that she is set to return for season 6 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” co-star Mikayla Matthews announced she was quitting rather than film with her, writing, “I told [production] before agreeing to do [season] 6 that I wasn’t going to film if that certain someone came back. Because it’s UNETHICAL and kids are involved.”

Current Status

As of September 17, 2026, Paul’s parenting time stands at the reported eight hours per week, split across her three children, with the custody cases ongoing in Salt Lake City and the gag order still shielding the underlying filings from public review. She remains under a 36-month probation sentence for the 2023 aggravated assault plea, per court records reviewed by NPR, and has not been charged in connection with the reported failed drug tests — which remain, at this writing, unproven allegations from unnamed sources. Her reality-TV future is unsettled: she has not personally confirmed a season 6 return, and Matthews’ exit over her expected comeback has cast public doubt on the show’s plan. Neither her representatives nor the courts have publicly commented on the substance of the report.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For an influencer whose brand was aspirational motherhood, the reported drug-test failures — even unadjudicated — strike at both pillars of her public identity at once: the MomTok mom and the reality-TV survivor. Her career arc now reads as a cascade: a canceled “Bachelorette” season that was to be her mainstream breakthrough, a halted show season, a reduced custody schedule, and a co-star publicly refusing to work with her — all while she remains the highest-profile member of a franchise that appears unable to quit her. The New York Post’s own headline — “Taylor Frankie Paul dealt new custody battle blow as she fails multiple drug tests” — captures how completely the custody war has overtaken her public narrative, and with both exes aligned against her, her path back to expanded parenting time or full-time TV stardom has rarely looked narrower.