“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 5 will resume production without Taylor Frankie Paul.
Filming for the fifth season of the Hulu reality show, filmed in Utah, was paused amid a now-closed police investigation into an alleged domestic abuse incident involving Paul’s former boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen.
During the investigation, ABC also canceled Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette,” announcing the decision just three days before its scheduled premiere.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against Paul after reviewing cases submitted by the Draper and West Jordan police, the district attorney’s office said last week.
In the wake of the fallout, Paul has chosen not to resume filming “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 5, and is stepping back from the spotlight for her mental heath, including deactivating her social media accounts, reports People.
“Taylor is a taking a breather,” a source told People. “It’s been a lot last couple months to consume and will be back shortly to continue sharing her story. She’ll decide when the time is right to return to filming on ‘Secret Lives.’”
ABC has not made a formal decision on whether it will air Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette” after her charges were dismissed.
Rob Mills, the executive vice president of unscripted for Walt Disney TV, says the network is “still processing everything and figuring out” as it weighs options for the still-unaired season.
“We take everything a day at a time,” Mills told The Wrap. “And really just kind of looking at everything, and first and foremost, honestly, just making sure that Taylor, her family, everyone is being taken care of, just on a personal and human front.”
Paul built a career as a leading influencer in the viral #MomTok community on TikTok, a group of Utah women who share clips of their lives online.
She has also starred in four seasons of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which has chronicled her on-again, off-again relationship with Mortensen.
In an Easter Sunday post, Paul said she is working to “detach” from aspects of her Latter-day Saint upbringing, adding that she maintains respect for the faith and continues to believe in Jesus Christ, God and the Bible.
Following the announcement that the Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges, Paul said she would begin the process of healing.
“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,” she said in a social media message.
“We have a road ahead but regardless I’m forever freed from a certain living hell I couldn’t find my way out of,” she continued. “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.”