Dakota Mortensen declared he was “obsessed” with Taylor Frankie Paul in the newly released trailer for Season 5 of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
In the scene, Mortensen, 25, revealed a fresh inner-lip tattoo bearing Paul’s initials during a FaceTime call with his ex-girlfriend, 30. “Why did you my initials tattooed on your lips?” Paul asked him in the clip. “It’s giving obsessed.”
“I am obsessed,” Mortensen responded, pulling down his lip to show her the ink.
The trailer also turned to the fallout from ABC’s cancellation of Paul’s planned “Bachelorette” season, a decision that came after a video of a 2023 domestic dispute between the exes was leaked in March. Production asked Paul’s co-stars for their reactions to the network’s move.
“There’s so much stuff the public doesn’t know,” Mayci Neeley responded in a confessional interview.
“How did she get here?” Miranda Hope said in another scene, as the trailer cut to footage of Paul sobbing while being comforted by Neeley, Mikayla Matthews and Jessi Draper.
Paul was arrested over the 2023 incident and charged with three felonies: one count of aggravated assault and two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, plus one misdemeanor each of child abuse and criminal mischief. She pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault under a plea deal that would reduce the charge to a misdemeanor if she completed three years of probation. The remaining charges were dismissed.
Though her arrest was already addressed during Season 1 of the Hulu series, the leaked footage put Paul back at the center of scandal and prompted ABC to axe her “Bachelorette” season. A separate domestic violence investigation into Paul over an alleged February incident also forced production to halt filming of Season 5.
Shortly after the video’s release, a spokesperson for Paul issued a statement railing against what they called a “selectively edited” video, “which conveniently omits context.” The representative dubbed it part of Mortensen’s “never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard for the consequences for their child.”
Mortensen fired back in his own statement. “As anyone who has seen the video will understand, this is a deeply upsetting situation,” he said. “I am, unfortunately, used to these baseless claims about me and our relationship, which I categorically deny. I am focusing on our son and his safety, and hope that Taylor will do the same.”
In the viral moment that set off the current wave of coverage, a video of the 2023 domestic dispute between Paul and Mortensen surfaced online in March, showing a physical altercation that led to Paul’s arrest and subsequent felony charges. The footage, described as “horrifying” in multiple accounts, prompted ABC to pull the plug on Paul’s “Bachelorette” casting and reignited scrutiny of the couple’s tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship, which began in 2022.
The exes have since traded accusations of domestic abuse and filed restraining orders against each other, while also becoming locked in a messy custody battle over their two-year-old son, Ever. Paul lost temporary custody of the child on March 19 following the February incident investigation, with Mortensen granted temporary custody at that time. At their most recent custody hearing last month, however, Paul secured expanded parenting time.
Season 5 of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” premieres on Hulu on Sept. 15.