Prolonged legal fights do something insidious—they don’t just drain your bank account or fill your calendar with court dates. They hollow you out from the inside. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul is putting words to that experience right now, and it’s a raw look at what happens when a custody battle stretches on without resolution.
On Saturday, June 13, Paul responded to a fan navigating a similar situation by describing something many people going through family court don’t talk about openly: emotional numbness.“Tbh I’ve gone emotionally numb,”she wrote via Instagram Stories, adding a detail that hit harder than anger ever could.“I can’t even cry lately which is very unlike me.”It’s the kind of confession that suggests not just sadness, but a nervous system that’s essentially checked out as a survival mechanism. She framed it clinically but honestly:“There is emotional overwhelm or numbness, both are coping mechanisms.”
The context makes the numbness make sense. Paul is in a contentious custody battle with ex Dakota Mortensen over their two-year-old son, Ever. Back in February, Mortensen alleged Paul was physically violent—claiming she choked him and shoved him into a window. Paul denies the allegations of child abuse. A judge awarded Mortensen temporary physical custody and issued a restraining order requiring the exes stay at least 100 feet apart. Paul filed her own protective order, alleging assault by Mortensen. On June 1, a judge recommended lifting supervised visits, which was progress—but it came alongside the gut-punch reality that her son hadn’t been to her home in months except during scheduled visits.
The judge’s own words during the June 1 hearing reveal how stuck both parents are:“I certainly think that both of them have a sense that they are the victims and not the perpetrators and I get that. The main concern of the court is to prevent further acts of domestic violence.”Translation: nobody’s winning here. The court ordered Paul can have Ever on alternate weekends and one midweek day without overnight stays. It’s a step forward, but it’s also a reminder that trust has been completely shattered.
What Paul’s vulnerability highlights is the collateral damage of these battles that extends beyond custody schedules and court-ordered distance. She’s processing not just the loss of daily access to her child, but a complete emotional dysregulation—the kind where you can’t cry even when you want to. On May 31, she’d posted that she was throwing herself into home projects“mainly a coping mechanism to distract from the fact my baby hasn’t been here from months now, aside visits.”Staying busy, numbing out, staying in survival mode. The next custody hearing is scheduled for July 8, which means there’s more waiting, more legal proceedings, more of this limbo.
The story here isn’t about who’s right or wrong in the Mortensen-Paul situation—courts are still sorting that out, and both sides have made allegations the judge clearly didn’t fully buy from either party. What matters is Paul’s willingness to name the invisible cost: the emotional bankruptcy that comes from fighting for your kid in a system that can feel designed to drain you of feeling anything at all.
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.