‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ is down another member of #MomTok after Taylor Frankie Paul announced that she doesn’t wish to “move forward” with the Hulu reality series, allegedly due to ongoing scrutiny and bullying from her ‘Mormon Wives’ co-stars.
Taylor’s lengthy social media statement comes just weeks after Season 5 of ‘Mormon Wives’ dropped, showing the aftermath of Taylor’s catastrophic (and ultimately shelved) season of ‘The Bachelorette.’ The season ended with Taylor revealing to the cast the latest drama involving her ex-boyfriend/first baby daddy Dakota Mortensen– the very thing that caused a production pause on Season 5, as well as a shortened season of just five episodes. (You can click here for the latest update on Taylor’s ongoing legal and custody issues.)
Taylor has been at odds with most of the ‘Mormon Wives’ cast as of late, though the social-media squabble was taken to a new level on Monday when she posted a carousel of photos to Instagram, along with texts in which she claimed to be a victim of cyber bullying.
Along with co-signing comments slamming the other #MomTok members for “bullying” her, Taylor told fans that she wasn’t in certain scenes from the Season 5 intro because there was “a group that wanted to get [her] to the point of committing suicide,” which she only learned about while on her way to film that day.
In the (very lengthy) caption of her post on Monday, Taylor went on to seemingly announce her exit from ‘Mormon Wives.’ While she thanked the network for giving her the opportunity to return the show after the production pause on Season 5, the mom of three told fans, “I don’t desire to move forward like this.” (As The Ashley told you last week, Season 6 is currently in production, so it is unknown if Taylor is planning to leave the show mid-season or after filming wraps.)
Taylor proceeded in her post to accuse some of her co-stars of piling on her, despite being aware of what she’s “been through” in recent months. She also insisted that she has stayed quiet amid some of the alleged bullying that she (and her children) have endured.
“Almost the entire cast plus some, going at me….laughing about my kids is disgusting,” she wrote. “And I bit my tongue there.”
Taylor also claimed in her statement that her co-stars tried to get her to speak up on the group’s behalf regarding a possible increase in pay, but that she’s “grateful [she] never followed through with their requests of demands.” For the second time in her post, Taylor expressed her gratitude to the ‘Mormon Wives’ production and crew, while suggesting that they’ve been a source of support for her, unlike some people.
“I treated production and crew with respect always, in fact they are [the] ones who checked on me throughout this,” she wrote.
As she shifted her focus back to #MomTok, Taylor sided with her supporters who’ve accused the rest of the ‘Mormon Wives’ cast of being unkind to her.
“I agree it’s to the point of bullying for months now,” Taylor wrote. “What makes it harder to take in is some of these parents have made mistakes that would result in the same judgement I’m receiving yet [are] pointing a finger.
“However it’s a pleasure to remove myself so they can continue, because I’ve almost convinced myself I’m deserving of all this pain and to a certain degree absolutely this is consequences of my actions,” she continued. “My question has been how much suffering and scrutiny is going to be enough…I’m just relieved to be out.”
Taylor’s statement comes less than a week after Mikayla Matthews announced that she was leaving ‘Mormon Wives’ due to Taylor’s return. Mikayla specifically noted that she wasn’t comfortable continuing with a show that “continues to platform behavior” she doesn’t agree with, especially given her own experience “growing up in a home with multiple forms of abuse.”
“There’s no amount of money worth going against my morals or changing the stance I’ve had since I first saw and heard things that made me feel this strongly,” Mikayla wrote. “And for me personally, continuing to directly profit from this behavior feels wrong and unethical. It feels like a disservice to the children, everyone’s healing and the millions of people watching.”
Mikayla has since announced that she will be donating the money she would’ve made from filming the remainder of Season 6 to the National Children’s Alliance, which supports children and families affected by multiple forms of child abuse.
“It’s more for me personally than leaving something I didn’t feel right being a part of,” Mikayla wrote, in part. “It’s about using the money I’m willing to lose to support something I deeply care about and has affected every part of my life to this day. I meant what I said, and I want my actions to reflect it and continue to reflect it … .”
While Taylor– who took to social media just yesterday to call her co-stars “losers”– insisted in her post on Monday that she’s been the victim of bullying, many of the show’s fans argued otherwise in the comments.
“Girl they respond to YOUR comments, I don’t get how you can say and do whatever you want but the second someone matches your energy it’s a problem,” one person wrote, with another adding, “Tay girl cmon you attack them just as much on socials every day.”
“Why do you bully others if you know how bad it feels?” another person asked.
Taylor was also called out (numerous times) for actively deleting the negative comments she received on her post.
“If you have to frantically delete comments on every single post to ensure that you’re controlling the narrative, shouldn’t that be a red flag?” one person wrote. “The sheer amount of time it takes to do that has to be eating into the time you need to actually focus on what matters. The real world exists outside of the phone.”
At this time, Taylor’s (now former) co-stars have not commented on her exit from the show.
RELATED STORY: Taylor Frankie Paul Allegedly Fails Court-Ordered Drug Tests; Has Parenting Time with Her Kids Drastically Reduced
(Photos: Hulu; Instagram)
