Taylor Frankie Paul is ready to meet a completely different reality show beast. While her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives co-stars and occasional frenemies Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt are currently tackling Dancing with the Stars, the #MomTok breakout is focused on love, not dance. The 31-year-old has been officially confirmed as the new lead of The Bachelorette, the first time the show casts a lead outside of Bachelor Nation that wasn't previously on The Bachelor or another one of their series.
Taylor announced her new role appearing on Alex Cooper's hit podcast Call Her Daddy, during which she opened up not only about what she is looking for, but revealed she had not shared the news with her ex Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares her third baby, Ever True, who was born March 2024.
Asked by Alex whether she had already told Dakota that she was going to be the next Bachelorette prior to the Wednesday announcement, Taylor confessed: "I have not confirmed it with him. So I don't know if he knows or if he knew I had the opportunity … he'll know Wednesday."
"It's just not something that's been on, like, my priority list to confirm with him," Taylor separately told Us Weekly, adding that "he does know that we opened the gates of dating other people." Taylor and Dakota's on-and-off, often turbulent relationship was one of the main plot points of her reality show.
Weighing in on what his reaction might be on the podcast, Taylor shared that Dakota would "probably" be "sad," though noted: "He does know that I was dating and meeting people so that … we've already had that first hurt I guess. I think that's the hardest part, you see their first dating or hook up or whatever it is, that's gonna always take a toll no matter what."
Further reflecting on her relationship with Dakota — who she said will likely watch the show because he's "always watching" — Taylor said she "did want to end up with" him," and emphasized: "Did I love him? Absolutely. I had a baby with him. I wanted to be with him, but it just did not work out." She recalled: "This last summer was one of the hardest summers I ever had because I was like, 'Oh my gosh Taylor, you have to accept that you're not ending up with him.'"
And, she has her family's support. "My family's very supportive of this decision. You'll see [more on their feelings about Dakota] in November, so I can't speak much on that. But what I will say is they want what's best for me, for my kids and even for Dakota himself," she told Us Weekly. "It was the smartest decision I've made [to] part ways and close that chapter and start a new one. So they've been very on board, for sure."
As for that engagement that's on the line… she said it's "definitely" the goal. "And as my mom likes to say, I do fall in love quickly, and that's also the reason I did it. I always call myself a lover girl because I, like, fall for people and I have done that in the past. Obviously, I got married young, and the first guy I dated was my second baby daddy — so it was just very quick, and this time, it's going to be really cool, because, yes, I have been opening up to dating, but now I'm about to date, you know, 20 [or] 30 guys, and I've never done that before. I'm going to take my time, I'm going to kind of, like, get to know people. Maybe I learned things I didn't like or do like that I didn't even know. So I think this is gonna be really good for the long-term effect."