Had issues transpired in a different way, Taylor Frankie Paul can be six episodes into her quest to search out love on the small display. Instead, the TikTok influencer-turned-reality personality-and-canceled-Bachelorette-star this week appeared at a contentious court listening to that resulted in Paul and her former accomplice Dakota Mortensen being granted protecting orders in opposition to one another.
During the practically two-hour listening to on Thursday in Salt Lake City, attorneys for Paul and Mortensen described incidents, as they’ve beforehand, in which their shoppers accused one another of being bodily abusive throughout their relationship and as lately as February.
Paul, whose rise from #MomTok earned her a spot on the forged of Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” and Mortensen, who made his first look on Paul’s TikTok account lower than a 12 months after her divorce, have been ordered by Commissioner Russell Minas to remain at the very least 100 ft away from one another for 3 years. Minas inspired them to abide by the order, for themselves and the sake of the two-year-old baby they share.
“I’m hoping you’re not people who just thrive on the drama,” he instructed the pair.
Eric Swinyard, Paul’s lawyer, instructed NCS in a press release after the listening to that the end result was a “significant step forward” and that Paul “looks forward to continuing to cooperate with the Court” in the custody case.
NCS has reached out to a consultant for Mortensen for remark.
Paul isn’t the primary influencer to have her sturdy online following open doorways for her in the realm of actuality TV, however the authorized case that’s introduced a community’s million-dollar franchise to its knees in an unprecedented method has highlighted a uniquely 2026 debacle: What occurs when an influencer-turned-reality star’s life turns into too actual for TV?
Trials and tribulations
When announcing Paul because the Season 22 star of “The Bachelorette” in September 2025, ABC touted her as a single mom who “shares the highs and lows of her life with unfiltered candor.”
With “fearless openness,” the community added in its press launch, “she inspires others to embrace life’s chaos and own their story.”
Paul aired that chaos brazenly on “Mormon Wives,” together with the 2023 incident on the coronary heart of occasions that led to her season of “The Bachelorette” being canceled after TMZ printed a video exhibiting her in a bodily altercation with Mortensen.
These days, she is at instances extra considered together with her sharing, briefly deactivating her socials as Thursday’s listening to approached.
At the listening to, Paul’s lawyer instructed the court that Mortensen had been overheard by a witness, who can be a forged member on “Mormon Wives,” discussing the opportunity of leaking movies to the media, allegedly naming TMZ in explicit on the time. Mortensen’s lawyer denied on the listening to that he was behind the discharge of the video.
NCS has reached out to TMZ for remark.
In the video, which TMZ mentioned was a part of authorized proceedings and which NCS didn’t independently confirm or get hold of, Paul seems to throw a barstool at Mortensen in the presence of a kid.
At the top of Thursday’s listening to, the place attorneys for each Paul and Mortensen mentioned a variety of incidents, Minas mentioned he discovered that “there’s been violence that’s occurred both ways” earlier than issuing the mutual protecting orders.
The launch of the 2023 video by TMZ set off an unprecedented collection of occasions, with ABC making the choice to shelve Paul’s fully-shot “Bachelorette” season that was set to premiere that weekend. ABC, which shares the identical company father or mother as Hulu, has not addressed whether or not they have been conscious of the video and has seemingly caught by Paul’s facet whereas remaining noncommittal about what to do concerning the season, which with every passing continuing is skewing unusable.
“I think everything really is a day at a time,” Rob Mills, Executive Vice President of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment at Walt Disney Television, instructed The Hollywood Reporter in an interview earlier this month. “Everything concerning Taylor, first and foremost, is that we’re making sure anything she needs on a human level is taken care of, and then we can talk about anything from the show perspective.”
Mills mentioned in one other interview that he anticipated “The Bachelor” — the present that originated the franchise — to return in 2027.
Paul’s consultant instructed People journal in a statement on the time that she was “very grateful” for ABC’s help and that she was prioritizing her household’s “safety and security.”
Part of that originally concerned continued use of her social media platforms to debate her private issues, saying she was dedicated to “showing how ugly healing truly can be.” Less than per week later, her socials went darkish.
In its early days, actuality TV turned socialites like Paris Hilton and figures from tabloid tradition like Kim Kardashian into influencers who predated the time period. That hasn’t been the case for a while, with casting executives turning social media into their expertise pool, the place follower counts will be so interesting that it turns into simpler to show a blind eye to what, in hindsight, ought to have been purple flags.
Existing scandal hasn’t deterred streamers from choosing up influencers for actuality TV exhibits in the previous, though the allegations Paul faces are among the many most critical.
TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and her household scored a actuality present with Hulu following a brush with web cancellation. In 2020, D’Amelio and her sister Dixie have been criticized for making faces and gagging noises to meals served to them by private chef Aaron May throughout an episode of a YouTube present. May later instructed the YouTube channel, the Hollywood Fix that he remained in good standing with the D’Amelios and that the ordeal was in the end “all fun and games.”
D’Amelio, who at one level was one of many most-followed individuals on TikTok, misplaced a reported a million followers on the platform in consequence. “The D’Amelio Show” debuted in 2021 and ran for 3 seasons.
The present ended unceremoniously and not due to scandal, quite so the members of the family may concentrate on different enterprise ventures, together with a footwear model, in response to Deadline.
Sometimes, scandal can work in favor of a actuality star.
That was most lately illustrated by the wild journey of “Vanderpump Rules” star Ariana Madix, the protagonist in what grew to become often called “Scandoval” – when an affair between her former boyfriend of 9 years, Tom Sandoval, and her finest good friend Raquel Leviss, who have been each featured on the present, held the information cycle captive for weeks in 2023.
Madix had appeared on Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules” since 2013 up till 2024, when the collection as followers knew it went off air to recast a brand new, youthful batch of servers working at “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum and restauranter Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood mainstay Sur.
After the present ended, Madix – who was already a longtime actuality star and online influencer, went on to land an ongoing internet hosting gig on “Love Island USA” and starred as Roxie Hart on a Broadway manufacturing of “Chicago.”
The influencer to actuality TV star pipeline possible gained’t change anytime quickly.
ABC has forged a bunch of influencers for its actuality competitors present “Dancing with the Stars,” together with YouTuber Olivia Jade, “MomTok” influencers and “Mormon Wives” stars Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt, and procuring haul YouTuber Bethany Mota, amongst others.
Hulu additionally lately introduced the forged of the all-new “Mormon Wives of Orange County,” a forged that consists of a gaggle of girls who’re all established influencers on varied social media platforms, following an identical casting system as the unique Utah-based collection.
One of the forged members includes Affleck, a “MomTok” alum who appeared on the unique iteration of “Mormon Wives.” Because the truth is, when a system works more often than not, why change it?