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On March 19, 2026 — three days before Taylor Frankie Paul's season of The Bachelorette was set to premiere on ABC — Dakota Mortensen walked into a Utah courthouse and filed for a protective order against her. Court records viewed by E! News confirmed the filing.
TMZ published a 2023 video that same day showing Paul throwing three barstools at Mortensen while one of her children sobbed nearby. Within hours, Disney Entertainment Television pulled the season entirely. Mortensen, born January 27, 1993, is the man at the center of the story that just canceled one of America's most-watched reality shows — and almost nobody has written a word about who he actually is. This article does that.
Dakota Mortensen's Background — Caldwell, Idaho, a Bird Farm, and the Business He Built
Dakota Mortensen was born on January 27, 1993, and grew up in Caldwell, Idaho — a small city west of Boise that is about as far from Utah's reality TV world as it sounds. His father ran a bird farm, and Dakota grew up working on it alongside his family. It was not a glamorous upbringing, and he has never pretended otherwise.
He eventually relocated to Utah, where he rebuilt his life — first in construction and hard labor, then in business. He now owns Basin Tiling, a tiling and backsplash installation company serving new builds and home remodels across Idaho and Utah. He also works as a licensed real estate agent. His Instagram bio describes him simply as a "recovering addict." He has 370,000 followers on TikTok and posts mostly dad content.
Before Mormon Wives, before Taylor Frankie Paul, before any of the current headlines, Dakota had one prior brush with television. In 2015, he appeared on the first season of NBC's survivalist show The Island — one of fourteen contestants dropped on a deserted island with no prize money, no winners, and no eliminations. Just survival. The show barely registered with audiences, but the detail matters: Dakota Mortensen was doing reality television a decade before Secret Lives of Mormon Wives made him famous.
A source close to his situation told Entertainment Weekly in March 2026: "He was just hoping that if he said nothing, as he usually does, it would go away. He's never done any kind of sit-down interview about his side. He kind of just lets it all happen to him." That characterisation is accurate. March 19, 2026, was the first time he stopped letting it happen to him. Unlike Leah Kateb, who actively built her public profile after reality television, Mortensen spent three years trying to stay invisible.
The Addiction That Defined His Twenties — and the Recovery He Has Fought For
Before any of the Taylor Frankie Paul story, before Mormon Wives, before Basin Tiling — there was the addiction. Dakota has spoken about it publicly and at length, most notably on Nick Viall's The Viall Files podcast in June 2025 and on Recovery.com's Recoverycast in November 2025. What he described is not a cautionary tale so much as a map of how quickly things can unravel for someone who had no warning they were susceptible.
It started at a basketball practice in Idaho when he was seventeen. His knees were hurting. A kid at the gym offered him some pain pills. He had no idea what they were. Within months, he was snorting oxycodone. Within a year, he was smoking it off tin foil. From there: heroin, because it was cheaper than the pills that were running him fifty dollars each. Then fentanyl. The college basketball scholarships he had been working toward disappeared. He stopped caring. "I didn't want anything," he said. "I was cool with nothing. There was no desire to do anything with my life other than getting high."
His family caught him early — they knew almost from the start he was using — but knowing and stopping are different things. He made multiple attempts to quit cold turkey. None of them held. At the height of his addiction, he was breaking into cars to fund it.
Then he got married to his high school sweetheart — a woman who worked nights as a CNA. He tried to get sober for her, held off for a while, then relapsed. "I remember when I was going to my wedding," he has said. "It was going to be my last hurrah before I stopped. So I used there, and that was actually fentanyl that I used on my wedding day." She caught him shooting up heroin in the bathroom of their home. "Seeing her face, I could tell it destroyed her," he said. "I remember I wanted to feel something so badly, and I felt nothing." She filed for divorce. They were married for a year and a half. He was abusing drugs for the entirety of it.
The lowest point came during the divorce. He bought a gram of heroin intending to use it to end his life. "I was just like, 'I'm gonna just shoot up, and I'm gonna just try to kill myself. This is where I'm so sick of this life. I don't know how to stop.'" His cousin — who was himself in recovery — called him at that moment. He drove to St. George, locked himself in a hotel room, and went through withdrawal alone. He got clean, relapsed four years later on fentanyl, got clean again, and has now been sober for more than three years.
He met Taylor Frankie Paul approximately six months into that second stretch of sobriety after moving to Utah.
Dakota Mortensen's First Marriage — What He Has Said About It
Dakota Mortensen was previously married to his high school sweetheart before he met Taylor Frankie Paul. He has not publicly named her. She was a CNA — a certified nursing assistant — working night shifts while Dakota was in the grip of his worst years of addiction. She knew about his drug use but did not fully understand its severity.
He has described the marriage plainly: he was using drugs throughout its entire duration, including fentanyl on the day they married. She discovered him injecting heroin in their home bathroom. That discovery ended the marriage. She filed for divorce. They had been married for approximately a year and a half.
Dakota entered rehab, got sober for four years, relapsed on fentanyl during a period he has described as one of the hardest of his life, and eventually got clean again. The second stretch of sobriety has now lasted more than three years. He has spoken about the first marriage not with self-pity but with accountability: he was the one who was using, she was the one who bore the consequences of it, and the marriage ended because she made the right decision for herself.
He was approximately six months sober when he first encountered Taylor Frankie Paul in Utah.
How Dakota Mortensen Met Taylor Frankie Paul
Dakota Mortensen and Taylor Frankie Paul began dating in July 2022 — two months after Paul announced her split from first husband Tate Paul, with whom she shares two children, Indy and Ocean. Their relationship moved fast and played out almost entirely in public, documented across multiple seasons of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu.
Their dynamic on the show was not easy to watch. They broke up. Got back together. Broke up again. In the Season 2 premiere, Taylor revealed she had been considering engagement when a woman named Jenna told her she had been intimate with Dakota and that he had spent the night with her more than once. Dakota denied it in a September 2024 TikTok. Taylor's position was direct: "No, it was him."
Despite that, the two remained entangled long after any clean break should have happened. Their son Ever was born in March 2024. They entered a formal custody and support arrangement in the Utah court in June 2025, after Mortensen filed for custody and Paul filed a counterclaim. According to Mormon Wives Season 4, the night before Paul left to film The Bachelorette, she and Dakota spent the night together.
The 2023 Incident — What the Video Shows
In February 2023, Taylor Frankie Paul was arrested in Draper City, Utah, charged with aggravated assault and domestic violence. She admitted to police she had thrown metal chairs and a wooden play set at Mortensen. One of her children was accidentally struck and sustained a bump on her head.
Paul pled guilty and was sentenced to three years' probation. She addressed it on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast in September 2025: "I never intentionally did anything with my children. It was our rock bottom, my rock bottom for sure." She described Dakota as having stood by her through it — "he knew everything going on behind closed doors."
On March 19, 2026, TMZ published video of the incident, the same day Ever turned two years old. Paul's representative called releasing the video on their son's birthday "a reprehensible attempt to distract." The clip shows Paul attempting to put Mortensen in a headlock, kicking him, and throwing three barstools toward him. Mortensen can be heard saying "let me go" and reminding her that her daughter was watching. The child's crying is audible throughout. A source told TMZ that ABC had not seen this footage before selecting Paul as the Bachelorette lead.
The Restraining Order and the Bachelorette Cancellation
On March 19, 2026 — the same day the 2023 video surfaced — Dakota Mortensen filed for a protective order and sole custody petition against Taylor Frankie Paul in Utah. Court records confirmed by E! News listed him as 33. The filing alleges Paul was physically abusive during two separate incidents on February 23 and February 24, 2026.
Paul's spokesperson issued a statement: "Taylor is very grateful for ABC's support as she prioritizes her family's safety and security. After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser." The Draper City Police confirmed to People that a domestic assault investigation is underway, with 'allegations made in both directions."
Disney's statement read: "In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not to move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time." The suitors who had already filmed the season were left blindsided.
The irony is not small: a man who had spent three years saying nothing filed a piece of paperwork on March 19 — and that paperwork ended a network television season that had already been filmed. It was the kind of moment that put an unknown name into trending searches overnight — something Celia Walden experienced the same week, for entirely different reasons.
Dakota Mortensen and Son Ever — Custody and Co-Parenting
Dakota and Taylor share one child: Ever, born March 19, 2024 — which means he turned two years old on the exact day the TMZ video dropped, and the restraining order was filed. They operate under a joint custody arrangement formalised in the Utah court in June 2025. Paul has stated she was handling all communication through third parties, with no direct contact — including during pickups and drop-offs. The February 2026 incidents alleged in Mortensen's filing suggest direct contact occurred regardless.
The co-parenting challenge he now faces is not unlike what Kendra Caldwell Duggar navigated after Joseph Duggar's arrest in March 2026 — both situations involving young children caught between two parents in sudden legal conflict.
Dakota has described fatherhood as central to his continued sobriety. "If I had given up back then, I wouldn't have my son," he said on the Recoverycast podcast in November 2025. "Every time I talk about my son, I cry."
Quick Facts: Dakota Mortensen
| Full Name | Dakota Mortensen |
| Date of Birth | January 27, 1993 |
| Age (2026) | 33 |
| Hometown | Caldwell, Idaho |
| Current Location | Utah |
| Occupation | Owner, Basin Tiling + Licensed Real Estate Agent |
| First TV Appearance | NBC's The Island, Season 1 (2015) |
| Reality TV | The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Hulu (Seasons 1–4) |
| Relationship | Taylor Frankie Paul (dated July 2022 onwards, on and off) |
| Previous Marriage | High school sweetheart (approx. 2015–2016, divorced) |
| Son | Ever (born March 19, 2024, age 2) |
| Sobriety | 3+ years (as of 2026) |
| Restraining Order Filed | March 19, 2026 (Utah) |
| @dakota_mortensen | |
| TikTok Followers | 370,000+ |
Frequently Asked Questions About Dakota Mortensen
Who is Dakota Mortensen?
Dakota Mortensen is a 33-year-old tile contractor and real estate agent from Caldwell, Idaho, best known through his on-again, off-again relationship with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul on Hulu. Born January 27, 1993, he is the father of Paul's youngest child, Ever, born March 2024. On March 19, 2026, he filed a protective order against Paul in Utah, alleging physical abuse during two incidents in February 2026. The filing, combined with TMZ's release of a 2023 altercation video, led ABC to cancel Paul's season of The Bachelorette the same day.
How old is Dakota Mortensen?
He was born on January 27, 1993. He is 33 years old as of 2026.
Was Dakota Mortensen married before Taylor Frankie Paul?
Yes. Dakota was previously married to his high school sweetheart, a woman he has not publicly named. She worked nights as a CNA while Dakota was in the grip of his fentanyl and heroin addiction. She discovered him injecting heroin in their home bathroom, filed for divorce, and they separated after approximately a year and a half of marriage. Dakota has described using fentanyl on his wedding day. He entered rehab following the divorce and has been in recovery since.
What is Dakota Mortensen's job?
He owns Basin Tiling, a tile and backsplash installation company operating across Idaho and Utah, specializing in new builds and home remodels. He also works as a licensed real estate agent. Before building his business, he worked in construction and hard labor.
What did Dakota Mortensen file against Taylor Frankie Paul?
On March 19, 2026, Mortensen filed for a protective order against Paul in a Utah court, alleging physical abuse during two incidents on February 23 and February 24, 2026. Court records were confirmed by E! News. Paul's representatives denied the allegations and issued a statement saying Paul had "silently suffered extensive mental and physical abuse."
Was Dakota Mortensen on any other TV shows?
Yes. Before The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Dakota appeared on the first season of NBC's survivalist reality show The Island in 2015. He was one of 14 contestants dropped on a deserted island with no prize money or eliminations. The show offered no winner; contestants participated purely for the experience.
Did Dakota Mortensen cause The Bachelorette to be canceled?
The cancellation on March 19, 2026, followed two events: TMZ publishing a 2023 video showing Paul throwing barstools at Mortensen during a domestic incident, and Mortensen filing a protective order the same day. Disney Entertainment Television announced the cancellation hours after the video surfaced. ABC had reportedly not seen the 2023 footage before casting Paul as the Season 22 lead.
Does Dakota Mortensen have children?
He has one child: son Ever, born March 2024, shared with Taylor Frankie Paul. Paul has two older children — Indy and Ocean — from her first marriage to Tate Paul. Dakota and Taylor share joint custody of Ever under a Utah court arrangement from June 2025.
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