After her domestic violence charges were dropped last week, Taylor Frankie Paul has opened up about moving forward.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, whose Season 22 starring role on The Bachelorette was cancelled over a video of her throwing a stool at ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen and hitting one of her children, thanked her supporters in a post and announced she’ll be “sharing the process” of healing.
“Here come the ugly parts of what healing actually looks like,” she prefaced in the Instagram post. “If you know me you know I’ll admit my parts, flaws, and faults. I’m well aware that’s apart of it. We’ll get there. This public atrocity that I not only lived through once but twice now, on even a bigger scale was ultimately the cost to my freedom. I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy or even the ones who publicized it. I cried on my knees in pain while also saying THANK YOU we have a road ahead but regardless I’m forever freed from a certain living hell I couldn’t find my way out of.”
Paul continued, “Metaphorically someone witnessed me bleeding out and poured salt all over me… somehow I’m still here.. as we can see barely because I believe God held me through and sent help plus an army which makes me cry because, thank you to all of you that supported even without full context. God undoubtedly had a hand in this because after waiting 7 weeks on the 7th day EXACTLY I received the call all charges dropped. Those are his numbers symbolic for his plans which I’m nervous to see what’s in store … steps moving forward are the very basics. We’re working on eating, movement, rest, and retraining the nervous system. I’ll be sharing the process, because if my worst is shared better bet I’ll share the rebuilding too.”
ABC pulled the plug on The Bachelorette on March 19, just ahead of its planned premiere on March 22, after the 2023 incident emerged in the video. Paul had already entered a guilty plea on one count of aggravated assault for the dust-up with Mortensen in 2024. More allegations against Paul emerged in late March after the unscripted romance series was shelved.
Paul remains under ongoing probation, which could have been revoked if DA Gill had decided to pursue further charges, for which a five-year prison sentence was also possible for a third-degree felony.
