The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is back in business.
The series is reportedly resuming production after season 5 was paused following Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen’s domestic assault investigation.
Season 5 Production
Season 5 production is rolling after pausing in late March. Hulu confirmed the news, though they did not specify when production would start again.
Production was stalled after Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen’s domestic assault investigation was announced, just a few days after season 4 premiered on Hulu. The investigation also prompted the cancellation of Paul’s The Bachelorette.
People reported that “the show will not be filming Paul or Mortensen when production resumes.”
As of now, it’s not clear whether that absence will be temporary or permanent.
Wives “Banding Together”
Amidst all the drama surrounding Paul, the rest of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives women banded together.
A source close to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives shared, “The girls are very overwhelmed. They all banded together and they don’t want to come back right now. They were just getting tired of Taylor, honestly.”
Another source added, “None of the women want to be associated with her.”
Individual cast members have also spoken out about the pause in production and the situation surrounding Paul.
Mikayla Matthews posted on Instagram Stories about the production pause, stating the decision to stop filming was “a decision that all us girls came up with and agreed on” and that they “didn’t feel comfortable filming with everything that was happening.”
Jessi Draper also spoke about the event on Call Her Daddy. “Me and the girls, we did decide to stop filming when we found this out because we were starting to hear things a little bit before it leaked. We just didn’t want to be filming and say the wrong thing on camera, not knowing the full story yet. We didn’t want to have to process all this information for the first time and then also be speaking about it. We just thought for everyone’s mental health, let’s take a beat and let’s not film right now. That’s probably the best thing for everyone in this situation.”
She continued, “We went to production and the network, and they were all so supportive, and they were like, ‘We totally get it. You guys come first.’ They handled it so well. Because of that, we all felt comfortable being like, ‘You know what? This is our real lives and if we want this show to continue to be successful, we have to handle this the right way.’”
2026 Domestic Assault Investigation
The Draper Police Department confirmed to People on March 16th that they were investigating incidents that happened on February 24th and 25th.
During the open domestic assault investigation, Mortensen filed for a protective order on March 19th.
On an April 7th hearing, a judge granted Mortensen custody of their 2-year-old son Ever, with up to eight hours per week of supervised visitation for Paul. The arrangement will be in place until the next hearing on April 30th, where the judge will review each party’s protective orders.
On April 14th, prosecutors announced they would not be pursuing charges against Paul.
Paul’s Past Domestic Violence
Paul was previously arrested for alleged domestic violence in 2023. She allegedly threw “heavy, metal chairs” at Mortensen, also accidentally striking her daughter with a chair during the incident.
Paul later pled guilty in abeyance to aggravated assault. Since she followed the conditions of the plea deal, the charges were dropped.
Though that doesn’t erase the video of the incident, which has flooded social media in recent months.