Taylor Frankie Paul's Custody Fight Spirals: Ex Calls Cops Again

When one custody battle isn’t enough drama, apparently you add another—and then watch the legal system get weaponized like a reality TV script nobody asked for.

That’s the situation unfolding for Taylor Frankie Paul, the 32-year-old star of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, who’s caught in an increasingly hostile dispute with her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen over their 2-year-old son Ever. The latest chapter? Dakota called 911 again on Friday, June 26, around 10 p.m., this time to question the details of their existing protection orders—specifically how drop-offs and pick-ups for Ever should work. According to the Bluffdale Police Department, Dakota’s call prompted officers to contact Taylor, gather statements from both parties, and forward the case to the District Attorney’s office to determine if a violation occurred.

For context, this isn’t the beginning of their troubles. In February of this year, Taylor and Dakota had an alleged domestic violence altercation that made headlines in March. According to court documents, Dakota claimed Taylor choked him and shoved him into a window, and he alleged he feared for their child’s safety. Taylor has flatly denied those allegations. A judge granted Dakota a temporary restraining order against Taylor and temporary custody of Ever. But things shifted in April when Taylor received her own protection order against Dakota, claiming he assaulted her during that same February incident—an allegation he’s denied. The judge ruled both parents must maintain at least 100 feet of distance and initially ordered Taylor to have supervised visitation with Ever, though she was eventually granted unsupervised visits in early June.

The frustration is now boiling over. According to a source close to Taylor, there’s a fundamental difference in how the two are approaching this chaos: one side is“using and abusing the system to inflict the most pain and create inaccurate harmful narratives,”while Taylor is supposedly“trying to manage and avoid pain.”The insider believes Dakota’s recent actions are designed“seemingly to prevent a show from going on the air”—a reference to Taylor’s now-canceled season of The Bachelorette, which ABC pulled in late March after a separate 2023 domestic violence video resurfaced online. (Taylor pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 2023; other charges were dropped.)

Taylor herself has grown visibly exasperated. In a since-deleted Instagram Story after Dakota’s recent police call, she wrote,“Cops called on me again THIS WEEK…What are the odds? And it’s not people…it’s ONE person, the same person. It’s obsessive.”

If the custody chaos wasn’t enough, Taylor’s ex-husband Tate Paul—with whom she shares daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 6—filed for a temporary restraining order against her as well. A judge denied Tate’s request on Wednesday, July 1, though his petition to modify the custody agreement remains unresolved.

What emerges here is a cautionary tale about how custody disputes can metastasize when both parties lose sight of what actually matters: the kids caught in the middle. Whether Dakota’s repeated police calls are legitimate safety concerns or strategic intimidation, as Taylor’s camp suggests, the real cost is borne by Ever, Indy, and Ocean—and by a parent trying to rebuild her life while battling on multiple fronts.