Credit: Instagram
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Dakota Mortensen, 33, has finally moved on to a new woman after a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship with baby mama Taylor Frankie Paul, 32.
As fans of the series know, an alleged altercation between Taylor and Dakota in February of this year led to an older incident, in which Taylor was arrested in 2023, resurfacing.
The February incident and its aftermath led to SLOMW being temporarily paused and Taylor’s season of The Bachelorette being canceled.
Dakota is officially with a new woman, as Utah influencer Shinia Powell shared photos of the pair together packing on the PDA.
“Soaking up our last bit of summer,” she wrote alongside the pics. She also included a monkey covering its face emoji and a white heart.
Following Shinia’s photo dump, Taylor shared a rather odd post to her Instagram page hinting that she already knew about Dakota and Shinia’s relationship.
Taylor posted AI photos of two women that appeared to be her and Shinia with a photo caption saying, “Who do you think meets weekly now in the same fit with there alanis…”
In the post caption, she added, “This isn’t news to me. If anything cheers to us brown eyed girls showing up in the same outfit with our alani’s.”
And in the comments section, Taylor further explained her post, hinting that she and Shinia have met up for a custody exchange for Ever, her son with her ex Dakota.
“Her and I meet up weekly now honestly wasn’t bad,” wrote Taylor to a fan who asked her to explain her post.
And hours before the AI post, Taylor also took to her Instagram to share a new video message.
Over it, she wrote, “Let’s talk about DV. This is to share awareness bc it happens way more than people know.”
“I saw a comment yesterday, ‘The fact that you didn’t know what DV was back three years ago is a little concerning,’” Taylor began. “I agree, in a different way though. I didn’t learn that in school. I don’t know if you guys learned about DV in school, but I sure didn’t. I thought abuse was only physical. I mean, verbally – other than that, that is what I thought abuse was.”
She insisted she “did not know what coercive control, psychological abuse was,” and she was unaware “that was” a thing.
”I didn’t understand it,” she continued. “I had never done it, and I had never had it done to me– at least at the time, I didn’t realize. I’m not saying I haven’t been in toxic relationships. For those of you that know my backstory, obviously. Learning about DV here is a completely different ballgame.”
Taylor noted that it was “sad” that she “didn’t know” or “wasn’t educated,” as she believes more people need to get educated on what domestic violence is. She also shared that she thought PTSD was only for “people that go to war.”
Later, Taylor claimed she had “not raised” her voice until she was 29 years old.
“So, the question I’m sure people are going to have is, how did it get to the point?” she said. “Let’s just use the video for example, right? Because I know if I didn’t know, and I didn’t realize, there’s a ton of people out there that also don’t know. If you’re taking anything from this video, confusion is the number one sign of where you’re questioning.”
The SLOMW starlet also stated, “everything just starts to escalate… and then… becomes physical.”
”You’re losing your mind, everything’s twisted, manipulated, gaslit,” she added. “You don’t even know if what your self is saying is correct. You actually sit there thinking, ‘Well, I’m a horrible person.’ So then you don’t really tell anyone, because you’re – you’re the only bad guy here. You’re the sole and only problem, and that also isn’t true… People out there that are staying silent because they think they’re the sole and only problem, I just hope that you get the courage to speak up if you’re in this.”