Taylor Frankie Paul filed a temporary protective order against her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, in Salt Lake District Court on Tuesday, according to her lawyer and court records.
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The temporary order was filed about an hour before Paul and Mortensen were scheduled to meet in court to discuss the temporary protective order that Mortensen had filed against Paul on March 20. A lawyer for Paul confirmed that the order was filed during Tuesday’s court hearing, saying it was “hot off the presses.”
The temporary order was not yet public as of Tuesday afternoon, so the details of Paul’s request are unknown. People confirmed the filing, saying that Paul alleges that Mortensen has had a “pattern of abusive conduct and coercive control” in their relationship.
At the Tuesday hearing, Dakota’s lawyer said that his client is requesting that child visitation be supervised by a facility that can act as a go-between between the parties. He added that his client does not believe it is safe for parties to communicate direction because Paul is allegedly “completely out of control” when they argue and “reckless.”
The lawyer also alleged that Paul had previously tried “to involve a child in the violence,” but did not provide further details.
In response, Paul’s lawyer asked to return to their former child custody schedule, where his client has their son 70 percent of the time. Paul’s lawyer argued that Mortensen is not a credible source, that his order “speaks to how vindictive Mr. Mortensen is,” and that both sides have “a lot of allegations against the other.”
The Tuesday court hearing comes during a tumultuous month for both Paul and Mortensen, amid domestic violence allegations made on both sides and hits to their professional careers on screen.
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The story behind the NBC News story on Taylor Frankie Paul
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Police in both Draper and West Jordan, Utah, confirmed to NBC News that their departments are looking into open domestic violence investigations with allegations on both sides.
On March 24, a West Jordan police spokesman told NBC News that the open investigation stems from an incident in 2024, and that only Mortensen has made allegations against Paul in that case. Police are reviewing multiple videos from the alleged 2024 incident, the spokesman said.
Draper police said that there is a separate open domestic violence investigation into Paul and Mortensen, with allegations on both sides, in its jurisdiction. Police say that the report was called in on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.
Reports of the new allegations against Paul in Draper began swirling last month and led the cast of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” to unanimously decide to pause filming on season five of the Hulu reality TV show.
The decision was made during a March 7 call between the cast — excluding Paul and Mortensen — and ABC executives. An audio recording of the call, shared with NBC News on March 19, confirmed the decision-making process.
Also on March 19, TMZ released a video that appeared to be filmed by Mortensen and showed Paul attacking him. The video reportedly captures a 2023 domestic violence incident involving the on-again, off-again couple, for which Paul faced charges.
Court records indicate that in August 2023, Paul pleaded guilty in abeyance to an aggravated assault charge related to that incident. Four other charges in that case — including assault, criminal mischief and domestic violence in the presence of a child — were dismissed with prejudice, the records show.
That video led ABC to pull Paul’s upcoming season of “The Bachelorette,” which was supposed to premiere on March 22.
Mortensen’s on-screen career also took a hit amid the back-and-forth allegations.
On Friday, NBC News confirmed Variety’s reporting that Mortensen would be edited out of Season Three of “Vanderpump Villa,” which starts streaming on Hulu on April 16 and follows the staff who work at reality star and entrepreneur Lisa Vanderpump’s villa.
In season four of “Mormon Wives,” a number of the “DadTok” members ventured to London to visit the villa and make guest appearances on the show.
Mortensen, however, is still appearing as one of 16 contestants on the Alex Cooper-backed “Unwell Winter Games,” which began streaming on YouTube Monday and will continue throughout the week.
Paul spoke out on Instagram over the weekend, saying that she is distancing herself from Mormonism — the religion she grew up practicing and a main tenet of the Hulu reality series that brought her into the zeitgeist.
“The last 40 days felt like hell on earth,” Paul wrote in a separate post, which features snapshots and video clips of what appears to be her life over the last few weeks.
Salt Lake County court records indicate that Paul and Mortensen will meet in court again on April 30 to “discuss the merits and entry” of the protective order. Both Paul and Mortensen will, again, appear virtually.