Dakota Mortensen Reveals His Last Words to Taylor Frankie Paul Before She Left for Bachelorette Filming
Dakota hasn't given up on the chance that there's a happy ending out there for him and Taylor
NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Frankie Paul and ex Dakota Mortensen have been on and off since late 2022
- In a FaceTime after Taylor arrived in Los Angeles to film The Bachelorette, the two look back on their relationship journey
- Dakota makes a final plea to let Taylor know how he feels as she’s on the way to meet the 22 men vying for her heart
Dakota Mortensen had some thoughts to get off his chest before Taylor Frankie Paul officially stepped into The Bachelorette.
The former couple talked by FaceTime after Taylor landed in Los Angeles to film the ABC dating competition. Dakota explains in a confessional that he feels like “this is the last chance to be able to even express to her how I feel.”
Dakota tells Taylor, “I do just want to say sorry for everything that I did. I know that caused a lot of problems,” he begins, to which Taylor tells him to be more specific in his apology.
“Taylor, I am sorry for what I did,” he starts, talking about his decision to date a friend of Mormon Wives costar Miranda Hope. “I’m sorry for hooking up with Shinia. Was it dumb of me? Yes. Could I have picked someone else? Yes. Who it was matters, and that’s where I think I went wrong. I picked somebody that was obviously going to come with problems, and that was very s—ty of me to do… And it put you in a s—ty spot, and I know that hurt you really bad.”
“Thank you,” Taylor replies, though in a confessional she says, “The apology is just words, like it always is.”
Dakota doubles down in his own confessional, sharing, “I think there are a lot of things we’ve done to hurt each other, but overall, I still think we love each other.”
Taylor tells Dakota, “Regardless of what happens, this will be like one of the best things for you and me,” noting they need to break the cycles they’ve been stuck in.
“I’m happy for you. And I do want you to be happy. So if you find someone, great,” Dakota replies.
Then, he continues, “But all I’m gonna say, save a rose for me, okay? If you don’t find someone. I know I’ve been acting like such a dumbass, and I’ve kind of just completely fell away from who I am. That’s why I loved you. You’re the only person that can help me see that sometimes.”
In a confessional, Taylor admits it “hurts” to realize that she “needs to move on” and that the two are really done. She notes, “I do think it’s an opportunity to get away from him, absolutely. It’s like a dream come true.”
It’s even more difficult for Taylor to get clarity because of the conversations the two had ahead of her departure. Earlier in the season, Taylor recounted to MomTok that his betrayals of her have been “so wrong.”
Jessi points out that Taylor could just be with Dakota if she wants, but continues to choose not to. In a confessional, Layla agrees, saying, “I think everything Dakota does is a complete red flag.”
“I feel like he’s a walking red flag, so it does not shock me that he decided to love bomb her right before The Bachelorette. I feel like he’s definitely hurt at the concept of her coming back and being in love and engaged and moved on from him, so I feel like he’s doing anything possible to ruin this experience for her, and I hope that she can see through that.”
Taylor says that Dakota is starting to understand that by hurting her, he’s made it so that love isn’t enough to keep them together.
“I do think that’s my only way out of this,” Taylor says of her decision to join The Bachelorette. Jessi agrees, but notes, “I’m afraid that if you don’t find someone that you’re going to come back and be stuck in it again.”
At that point, Taylor shares that Dakota told her, “I feel like you just need to marry me.” In her confessional, Taylor shares, “I mean, Dakota was definitely apologizing for what he did with Shinia. And do I believe him? No. He knew how this would affect me, and he was like, ‘Well, maybe if I make her crash out hard enough, she won’t go to The Bachelorette.’ And I think that’s deliberate. Jenna and Shinia? Hmm.”
Taylor’s casting as the next Bachelorette was announced in September 2025 during an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. It came three years after the social media star made a TikTok playfully auditioning to be on the dating show. She previously teased how the season was going in the first sneak peek after The Golden Bachelor season 2 finale in November.
“They’re all amazing, which has made it, thus far, so much harder,” she said at the time. “I feel like, if they were not the best, it’d make it easy to weed them out. But they’re such gentlemen, and there’s chemistry with them, and it’s just been wild. A lot of them didn’t know necessarily my exact story coming into this, but I think me opening up the books of like, ‘I’ll be honest with you, and I don’t have a pretty past,’ and I think it makes them feel like, ‘Okay, maybe I can tell you all of my past.’ “
When asked if Taylor thinks her husband is in the group, she told host Jesse Palmer, “Yes, I do think that. It’s scary to say that, because it’s like, the last thing you want to be is heartbroken at the end of this, when you want that to be a mutual feeling. But on my end, yes.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 4 is now available to stream on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
