Just one month after Taylor Frankie Paul seemed to hint at her split from her boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, it appears the two are back together. For the past few weeks, many fans (myself included) were under the impression that Paul and Mortensen were broken up after she posted a cryptic TikTok of herself dancing while crying with the caption, “Not me slowly morphing into 2022 me.” After Paul shared the post, many people took to the comments to let her know that they were there for her. Even Paul’s The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives co-stars weighed in, with Mayci Neeley writing, “This new chapter will be better than ever! Lean on us, we got you baby,” and Mikayla Matthews commenting, “Always here for you bb.” Paul then posted several follow-up TikToks that seemed to confirm that she and Mortensen were done.
But on Oct. 20, Paul shared a photo of herself and Mortensen shooting targets together while spending time in the mountains on her Instagram Story. She also shared a post that read, “Due to personal reasons, I’ll be back with the same man I said I’m done with.” And if that wasn’t enough, Paul and Mortensen have since re-followed each other on Instagram. So… all the signs point to them being back together.
With so much happening in their romance over the last two years, I think it’s time to look back at their relationship timeline and all that has gone down between them.
May 2022: Paul announces she & Her Ex are divorcing
Right before Paul and #MomTok made headlines for their infamous “soft-swinging” scandal (which ultimately led to the creation of The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives), she took to TikTok to confirm that she and her husband, Tate Paul, were divorcing.
“In my twenties, getting divorced, started therapy, living on my own for the first time ever along with two little kids,” she wrote in the text overlay of the video.
July 2022: Paul introduces Mortensen as her bf on tiktok
A few months after announcing her divorce, Paul featured Mortensen in a TikTok video, where she introduced him as her partner. “I will not be sharing this one,” she wrote in the caption, tagging Mortensen.
November 2022: paul reveals she’s pregnant with Mortensen’s child
Paul and Mortensen’s relationship took a major step when she announced on TikTok in November 2022 that she was pregnant with his child.
The video even showed her sharing the exciting news with Mortensen. However, after learning that she had an ectopic pregnancy, Paul revealed that she was no longer pregnant.
February 2023: paul is arrested
On Feb. 17, 2023, Paul was arrested after a heated fight with Mortensen that was captured on video. According to E! News, the video of the incident showed Paul throwing metal stools, one of which apparently hit her daughter Indy and struck Mortensen. Paul was later charged with two felony counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child and one felony count of aggravated assault, according to Salt Lake County court records. Paul was also charged with one misdemeanor count each of child abuse and criminal mischief. She later pled guilty to aggravated assault, and the other charges against her were dismissed. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that under her plea, Paul “must obtain both a substance abuse evaluation and a domestic violence evaluation” and “must not violate any laws above a minor traffic violation.”
Ahead of The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives premiere, Paul opened up about her arrest in an interview with Fox News, calling it a “blessing in disguise.” She said, “That was the worst thing that I’ve gone through. It was a regret. Hitting rock bottom, there’s only one way to go, and it helped me to go up. So honestly, as bad as that night was — I think it was also like a blessing in disguise and maybe could have saved my life in a weird way, like, where I was just drowning in misery.”
june 2023: paul & mortensen are back together
Four months after the assault incident, Paul confirmed she and Mortensen were back together on TikTok. A few weeks later, Paul became pregnant with Mortensen’s child.
March 2024: paul gives birth to their son, Ever
On April 4, Paul announced on Instagram that she’d given birth to her and Mortensen’s son, Ever True, on March 19.
“A week early and we’ve had the best two weeks with him,” Paul captioned the post, which featured snapshots of the couple with their new bundle of joy. “We all love you so much, thank you for blending our family.”
While talking about the birth on The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, Paul gushed about how great Mortensen was. “He was such a good partner in the process and very supportive,” Paul said in a confessional. “I’m like, on cloud nine, and this is like the first time I’ve been so confident in us, in a future. I hope that I can trust him.”
september 2024: the couple breaks up
On Hulu’s The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, Paul and Mortensen’s relationship was a big focus. Though happy moments between the couple were shown, they also went through some difficult times, especially after all of the drama surrounding Mortensen’s apparent relationship with a woman named Jenna while he was dating Paul.
In an exclusive interview with US Weekly on Sept. 23, Paul explained that she and Mortensen were taking a break after he saw SLOMW. “I would say that we’re working on things, and I have no idea where it goes with us from here. We are not fully together, but not fully done.” Paul said that she was deeply “heartbroken” from the split and that she doesn’t regret taking part in appearing in the show — although Mortensen wasn’t too keen on how he was portrayed.
“He has a really good soft side, and I feel like that wasn’t shown on the show,” she said. “He’s like, ‘I look like this a**hole to you while you’re pregnant, when that’s just not the case of how I treated you the whole time. Yes, I did defend myself in [some] cases, but that’s not how I am to you. I look like this awful person when I’m not.’”
October 2024: Paul & Mortensen get back together *AGain*
On Oct. 20, Paul took fans by surprise when she posted a photo of her and Mortensen looking pretty cozy as they shot targets together on her Instagram Story. She also shared a post that read, “Due to personal reasons, I’ll be back with the same man I said I’m done with.”
It seems Paul and Mortensen worked through their issues and are back to being a couple. Hopefully, this relationship lasts because, TBH, I can’t keep up with their saga.