Inside Taylor’s insanely messy relationship timeline with Ben, Dakota, and Doug from SLOMW
She revealed that she cheated on Doug
As we’ve seen in season five of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Taylor Frankie Paul’s love life has taken centre stage. And it’s usually not always for the best. So, here’s the full insanely messy relationship timeline of Taylor with Dakota, Ben, and Doug.
Taylor and Dakota break up again
Taylor and Dakota have had an on-again, off-again romance for years, and viewers have gotten a front-row seat to all their craziest moments. They share one son together, Ever, and have had a tumultuous relationship, including some domestic violence incidents and allegations.
Taylor and Dakota officially called things off before she filmed The Bachelorette, as she wanted to focus on the upcoming filming experience. They ultimately decided to remain co-parents and work on their co-parenting relationship.
Taylor meets Ben before going on The Bachelorette
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Ben and Taylor first met last season, with her explaining on the Call Her Daddy podcast how it all came to be in the first place.
Apparently she stumbled across him on TikTok Live, sharing: “He was singing and playing guitar. It was, like, new to him, too. I was like, ‘This guy’s got a voice!’ I’ve never, one, sat and watched a TikTok Live, really, nor do I write on them. But I was the one who was like, ‘You have a really good voice; can you play this song?’”
Taylor Frankie Paul then commented on his Live, with Ben Lambert asking where she was from, and after she told him, he shared that his ex used to watch Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. She then “teased him”, telling him she “only made an appearance” on the show once.
Taylor then flew him out to Utah to get to know him and said that she had an instant crush on him. She was upfront with him that she was about to film The Bachelorette, and he said he was “cool” with it.
Taylor hooks up with Dakota the night before flying out for The Bachelorette
The night before flying out to The Bachelorette, Taylor slept with Dakota literally hours before catching her plane. She even had to catch a later flight, and her co-stars had to show up at her house when she didn’t show up at the airport for her original flight.
She gets engaged to Doug on The Bachelorette
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Taylor then goes on The Bachelorette, meets Doug Mason, and gets engaged to him.
Doug has since revealed that he has a hunch that things weren’t over between Dakota and Taylor whilst she was on The Bachelorette, as he said during an interview on The Bachelor Happy Hour Podcast.
“And then of course as we went on with the show I expressed clearly that there may or may not be some unfinished business”, he shared. One of the hosts then clarified if he told Taylor that he felt like things weren’t finished with Dakota back at home.
Doug confirmed: “It was just clear. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in toxic relationships before, and you start to get a little bit of information for me, but also guys, by the way, I never judged her when I went into it. I just took a lot of facts, and I gave her the opportunity to kind of, you know, show me who she really is before. I just kind of like had these blanket statements.
“But as we went on, I started to recognise that maybe I was a little bit more willing to open up, more willing to express how I felt, especially once we got further. And I kind of thought, you know, somebody that is really ready for something in this situation may resemble the attributes that I’m expressing, right?
“I’m going over, I’m going over everything constantly, you know. It’s just I’m turning the thing over. I’m flipping that stone over a thousand times. But neither here nor there. She and I had a wonderful connection. But yeah, it doesn’t bother me that people compare me to him. Eventually, you know, who’s to say? Maybe we’ll meet.”
Taylor hooks up with Dakota when she gets back
On season five of SLOMW, Taylor admits that she cheated on Doug with Dakota. Almost immediately after finishing The Bachelorette, she revealed that she was texting Dakota. “‘When are you coming home? When are you going to be home?’ I don’t know how it led to it, but he came over,” Taylor said.
When her co-stars confirm that she cheated on Doug, Taylor’s response was: “I don’t like the word cheating.” She also revealed at the same time that she hadn’t told Doug.
Ben secretly flies out to meet her in New York City
Upon her return from The Bachelorette, she tells her friends and co-stars that she’s “in love with someone else” and confirms that it’s Ben. Despite sleeping with Dakota literally hours before.
Taylor has Ben meet her in New York City when she’s there for Whitney’s Chicago opening night. She was still under an NDA for The Bachelorette, so they had to keep it pretty low-key.
Taylor ends her engagement with Doug
Taylor said that she and Doug began to grow distant after The Bachelorette. She revealed that she split with him during a visit after the show, saying: “So, first, having a happy couple visit with Doug, there was a point that it clicked. I was like, ‘This isn’t gonna work, and I’m gonna break it off,’ and not like, break off like, ‘I never want to talk to you again,’ but like, break off this, like, heaviness that I’m feeling.”
She then continued, saying: “Maybe there’s a part of me that maybe felt that Doug didn’t even really, really, like, love me per se and has a motive here. I didn’t know he was trying to be an upcoming artist until up to the very end. In his mind, I think he probably convinced himself, ‘Well, we can get engaged. Give everyone a happy ending here. Figure it out after the fact.’ So I broke it off. I was like, ‘I think it’s just what’s best moving forward,’ and that was so relieving. I went home and was like, all right, I can breathe.”
She continues seeing Dakota but eventually calls it off
Taylor then continues hooking up with Dakota, but eventually texts him saying it was “over for me in every department,” except for co-parenting with him.
The domestic violence investigation involving Taylor and Dakota was then revealed, and now the two have been in various legal battles.
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