Taylor Frankie Paul Unloads on Mother's Day: Friendship Fractures Surface

On Mother’s Day, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul used the occasion to air out months of simmering tension—not with family, but with castmates who she feels abandoned her when she needed support most.

The 31-year-old posted a lengthy, raw message on Instagram Sunday, May 10, where she referenced being“kicked while already down”by people calling boundary-setting an excuse to hurt her. Without naming names directly, Paul was clearly responding to costar Mikayla Matthews, who announced she’d tried to“stay as removed as possible”from Taylor’s legal drama. Paul had fired back in the comments, accusing Matthews of“waiting for my downfall,”which Matthews denied.

The timing is loaded with context. Taylor temporarily lost custody of her son Ever, age 2, following an alleged domestic violence incident with ex Dakota Mortensen. She was granted a 12-hour Mother’s Day visit after local police declined to press charges. In her post, she referenced her 2023 arrest on charges including aggravated assault and domestic violence, to which she eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated assault while other counts were dismissed with prejudice. She’s been candid about the physical and emotional toll: being hurt while pregnant, beaten shortly after giving birth, and losing two babies. In her view, staying silent and taking the blame for years landed her in jail—and now the same people who watched her struggle are treating her like the problem.

What stings most in her message isn’t the legal fallout; it’s the alleged silence. She noted that her last conversation about the situation wasn’t with her, implying that castmates discussed her behind her back. She also hinted at petty workplace drama during filming of Mormon Wives season 5, which halted production after her altercation with Mortensen but has since resumed without her on camera. She asked pointedly:“Does she get paid more than us?”

Jessi Draper, another Mormon Wives costar, offered public support in the comments, saying she’d seen“the behind the scenes”and understood firsthand. But the fracture is clear: when Taylor’s world fractured, not everyone showed up.

Taylor ended with a warning in her Instagram Story: she won’t stay silent or log off. She’s done taking the hits quietly. That’s a significant shift in posture for someone who spent years absorbing blame—and it signals that the cast drama may be far from over.