Taylor Frankie Paul wins victory in custody battle with ex Dakota Mortensen
Taylor Frankie Paul has scored a major win in the custody battle with ex Dakota Mortensen over their 2-year-old son son, Ever.
A Salt Lake City judge ruled that the "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" star, 32, will be able to have unsupervised, overnight visitation with the toddler during a hearing on Monday, June 1, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY.
Under the new arrangement, Paul, who was previously only allowed supervised visitation for "up to eight hours" each week, will follow Utah's minimum parent-time provision. This allows her to have Ever overnight every other weekend and one midday weekday not overnight, per the Utah State Legislature's official website.
Mortensen will remain "the custodial parent for holiday parent time."
The judge also continued the terms of Paul and Mortensen's mutual restraining orders, which bars them from "making disparaging remarks of one another" and requires them to stay 100 feet apart from one another.
Paul and Mortensen both have protective orders against each other
The exes were last in a Utah court on April 30, where 3rd District Court Commissioner Russell Minas determined they have a "dysfunctional" and "very toxic relationship" following several accusations of domestic violence by both of them over the years.
"There seems to be a continuing attraction that they have for each other. Whether it's physical, whether it's the thrill of the two of them being a part of making themselves celebrities, there seems to be this attraction," said Minas at the time. "The problem is that the two of them can't be together in the same place at the same time for very long before it starts to turn violent. ... I am very concerned."
The commissioner found that Mortensen and Paul "need to stay away from each other," with their protective orders against each other continued for three years.
In Paul's April request for a protective order, she alleged a "high number of instances of abuse and domestic violence" by Mortensen, including four incidents involving assault, harassment and stalking from March 2025 to February 2026. Mortensen's petition for a protective order has not been made public and his attorneys have declined multiple requests for comment.
Paul also avoided legal troubles relating to an alleged domestic violence incident earlier this year, with the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office telling USA TODAY in a statement on April 14 that it would not be pursuing a case against her.
In March, Paul's season of "The Bachelorette" was scrapped days before the premiere, after footage of a 2023 incident, for which the reality star was arrested, was published by TMZ.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY.