What happened to Mormon TikToker Taylor Frankie Paul? Why she was arrested and got divorced

In the social media age, people can be propelled into the public eye overnight thanks to one post - be it a TikTok video, a tweet or a Facebook post. One such person who suddenly found themselves with a large following after one of their videos went viral on TikTok is Taylor Frankie Paul.

She originally started posting on TikTok under the username @TaylorFrankiePaul in early 2020 to share her pregnancy journey. Back then, her videos got a few thousand views and she gained popularity as a member of the ‘MumTok’ community - where mums and expectant mothers share everyday details of their life as a parent or would-be parent.

In August 2020, however, a video of her dancing to Pop Smoke song Mood Swings went viral. Over time, Paul’s popularity has steadily grown as a result and some of her videos gain over 10 million views. She also now posts videos about a wide range of topics, including light-hearted edits about hairstyle tips and cleaning hacks. She also openly talks about more serious issues including her relationship issues, her time in therapy and her struggles with depression.

As Paul has recorded so many videos over the last three years, there’s not much about her life that her four million followers don’t know about - and it’s fair to say she’s led an interesting life. In one TikTok post, she uploaded a video which showed her sitting in her home looking glum entitled ‘My life in a year’. The text written over the video reads “I’m 28, was married, now divorced and living on my own for the v (very) first time with two babies. I had no idea what an ectopic pregnancy was till I experienced one.

"I learned what real friends are like. Was arrested and spent the night in jail. Didn’t see my kids for weeks, hit a point I did not want to live anymore from guilt and pain. I then got up, seeked therapy, got on antidepressants to help me climb out this hole fell in”. She ended the video with an encouraging message for her viewers: “Feel don’t suppress” and added “life is weird”. 

But, just who is Taylor Frankie Paul, and what has happened to her? Here’s what you need to know about her.

Who is Taylor Frankie Paul?

Taylor Frankie Paul is an American 29-year-old TikToker from Utah. She is a member of the religious and cultural group the Mormons and has two children, a son and a daughter. Her daughter Indy is six-years-old and her son Ocean is aged three. She's also expecting her third child, which is due in 2024. Paul’s TikTok biography simply reads “mom to my two babies” and there is a link to Select Management Group, suggesting she is looked after by this agency. She also has an active Instagram account.

Is Taylor Frankie Paul in a relationship?

Taylor Frankie Paul is in a relationship with Dakota Mortensen, 30, and the couple announced in September 2023 they were expecting their first child together. Their relationship has, however, been turbulent. In one video she posted with him the couple were lip syncing to Taylor Swift’s We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together using kitchen utensils. In doing this, they are poking fun at the fact they have had an on again/off again relationship since they began dating in the summer of 2022.

Paul usually posts many videos which include Mortensen on her TikTok and Instagram pages, documenting the highs and lows of their relationship and openly discussing the times they have separated.

Paul and Mortensen were also expecting a child together in late 2022, but she revealed in November that year that she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy. This is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes. It is not possible to continue a pregnancy in this way and it has to be stopped using medicine or an operation.

Who was Taylor Frankie Paul married to?

Taylor Frankie Paul was previously married to Tate Paul, who is the father to her two children. They shared details of their relationship with their TikTok followers, including filming themselves working out together or getting ready for a date night.

Many followers would frequently comment that the pair looked similar, leading them to create a sarcastic video in which they claimed they’d done a DNA test and they were “100% related”. This was just one of the many joke videos which Taylor has made since joining the platform, hitting back at some of the cruel and bizarre taunts from some users. She has also had to defend herself against repeated accusations that she is actually 50, for example, but does this in a light-hearted way by referring to herself as an ‘old soul’.

The couple would also make comments about being in some kind of open relationship, although it was never clear how much truth there was to this or if they were just joking. In one video, for example, Taylor danced around with a woman she introduced as her husband’s girlfriend, who was apparently also their children’s nanny, and referred to her as her “sister wife”.

Why did Frankie Taylor Paul and Tate Paul get divorced?

Frankie and Tate divorced in 2022, and Taylor claimed that then-husband asked for a divorce after she broke the rules in a swinging agreement that they had made with their friends. In a TikTok live posted to her page in May 2022 she revealed that the couple had been involved in ‘soft swinging’ with their married friends - but that her spouse had left her when she had gone too far with the husband of a friend. She said she also lost most of her friends as a result of the incident.

She alleged that she and the other wives in her friend group would make out with each other and each other's husbands while drinking alcohol, as reported in the Daily Mail. She said one night she got 'belligerent' drunk and 'messed around' with one of her friend's husbands alone rather than 'with the whole group.'

“We had an agreement, like all of us, and I did step out of that agreement. That's where I messed up, and I, obviously, am losing everything that I have, so that is true,” she said. However, she added: “No one was innocent. Everyone has hooked up with everyone in this situation. So, yes, I'm getting shunned for doing that, but it wasn't like I was going around hooking up with my friend's husband.” 

She also revealed she had developed 'feelings' for the other man, which complicated things. “I was friends with these people, and we spent a lot of time together. We were intimate on several occasions. 'It sucks that I have to admit this because...no one really wants to admit they're involved in something like that,” she said.

Taylor also alleged she and Tate had various issues in their marriage before they separated, but said 'this was like the tip of the iceberg.' She said: “Tate has made out with several girls and [done] other things, and I've made out with all of the husbands and [done] other things.”

In August 2022, she posted a sarcastic video, imposing her face on to the back of a police car, writing “if catching feelings while swinging becomes illegal I wouldn’t be the only one in the car”.

Was Taylor Frankie Paul arrested?

Yes, Taylor Frankie Paul was arrested in February 2023. The DailyMail first reported that month that she had been arrested for assault and domestic violence after she threw 'heavy metal chairs’ at Mortensen. In August 2023, she pleased guilty to this charge, according to local media.

The inmate rap sheet obtained by The Daily Mail from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Correction Bureau states that she was arrested on 18 February for assault, criminal mischief and domestic violence in the presence of a child. Paul was taken into custody after neighbours called the police because Taylor 'threw heavy metal chairs' at Dakota and 'put him in a chokehold’, as reported by The Daily Mail. She spent nine hours in custody before she was released. 

According to police records, she also threw her phone at her boyfriend, and made him 'fear for his life.' The altercation was caught on video, according to the documents, but that has not become public. The court records say Mortensen told Paul to stop throwing things at him because he was next to her daughter, Indy, but she continued. One of the chairs supposedly hit the six-year-old girl in the head and left her with a 'goose-egg' injury, the records claim. It remains unclear what caused the incident. 

"A video of the incident shows Paul kick [the victim], put him in a chokehold and strike him multiple times," documents reported. The video also showed Paul throwing the stools and her child crying after being hit with the stool.

Now, six months after her arrest, Paul pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. As part of the plea deal, other charges were dismissed including two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, third-degree felonies, a class A misdemeanor charge of child abuse and a class B misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.

Shortly after the incident, Mortensen told The Daily Mail that Paul had been at a 'Galentine's’ party, a female-focused alternative to Valentine's Day, when he went to pick her up and drive her back to her house.

He said: “I really don't want to talk about it but I want to clarify a few things. I didn't call 911”, and added that he thinks a neighbour may have called the authorities. He said that the pair didn’t argue and that “she never hurt anyone intentionally”. When asked for more details he said he didn't want to elaborate. He added: “I don't even want the truth to come out. She's so broken right now. I tried to help her. She's a good mum, she's going through a lot in her life right now. Taylor's been struggling, it's been a hard year for her. She is racked with guilt on her cheating scandal that cost her her marriage.”

Paul must comply with specific conditions including participating in counseling, obtaining a substance abuse and domestic violence evaluation and not violating any other laws, documents state. Her guilty plea will be held in abeyance for three years and if she successfully completes the agreement, the aggravated assault charge will be entered as a class A misdemeanor, as stated by local media.

Paul took a month away from her TikTok page after the incident and has not commented publicly on it since she returned to posting on the platform.