Prosecutors in Utah said on Tuesday that they would not file charges against Taylor Frankie Paul after a domestic violence investigation surrounding the reality television star and the father of one of her children.
The decision by the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office came after Ms. Paul’s ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen reported to the police that she had scratched, shoved and struck him during an explosive fight in February. Ms. Paul has asserted that he had been the primary aggressor.
She had pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr. Mortensen in 2023. Any new charges would have violated her parole and could have put her at risk of prison time.
The news this year that Ms. Paul and Mr. Mortensen were the subjects of a new investigation by the police in Draper, Utah, sent shock waves through the reality TV world.
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which established Ms. Paul as a television star, paused the filming of its fifth season. After video of the 2023 assault was leaked, ABC pulled a season of “The Bachelorette” that had already been filmed with Ms. Paul as the lead and which was days away from its premiere.
The district attorney’s office screened several allegations of domestic violence that had been reported by Mr. Mortensen. In a letter explaining its decision, Breanne Miller, a lawyer with the office, said some of his allegations fell outside the statute of limitations and that others did not rise to a crime. The rest, she wrote, “lack sufficient evidence” to prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Such incidents lack specificity as to when and what actually occurred or corroboration,” Ms. Miller wrote.
The office said it had not considered charges against anyone else.
Representatives for Ms. Paul and Mr. Mortensen declined to comment. The former couple are still fighting in court over custody of their 2-year-old son, with dueling protective order petitions that contain conflicting accounts of violence, including an altercation in May 2025.
Mr. Mortensen, 33, said in a petition for a protective order against Ms. Paul that during the encounter in February, she choked him in her home during an argument, and the next night attacked him inside his truck.
“This incident is consistent with a pattern of behavior where she becomes physically aggressive, prevents me from leaving, and escalates situations to a dangerous level,” he wrote in the filing.
A court granted Mr. Mortensen temporary custody of their son. Later, Ms. Paul filed her own bid for a protective order against Mr. Mortensen. Her petition disputed his account and accused him of slamming her head against the dashboard of his truck, leaving a bruise. Mr. Mortensen has said he had pushed her away because she was attacking him.
Ms. Paul, 31, wrote in her petition that the fight arose from an argument over their relationship after Mr. Mortensen became “increasingly possessive” ahead of the release of “The Bachelorette.”
“I am so tired of his physical and emotional abuse,” she wrote. “This cycle of abuse continued so many times, and I am glad it is over.”
She was granted supervised visitation rights for her son last week. The court will re-evaluate the custody arrangement in a hearing scheduled for this month.
Ms. Paul has made a career out of airing the intimate — and often turbulent — details of her life, relationships and personal conflicts. She rose to fame as a social media influencer by posting playful videos of herself and other women, collectively known as MomTok, who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2022, Ms. Paul revealed online that she had been romantically involved with other couples in her friend group in what she termed “soft swinging.” The drama stoked by that scandal led to the creation of “Mormon Wives.”
By the time the show premiered in 2024, Ms. Paul was embroiled in legal troubles. The first episode included footage of her arrest in 2023 after assaulting Mr. Mortensen.
Mr. Mortensen told the police that Ms. Paul, while heavily intoxicated, had attacked him and had thrown metal bar stools at him, one of which accidentally hit her 5-year-old daughter. In a statement to a mental health counselor that was filed with the court, Ms. Paul said it was unclear if the stool hit or grazed the child and denied that her daughter showed any signs of injury.
Ms. Paul was charged with aggravated assault, domestic violence and reckless child abuse. After she took a parenting course and pleaded guilty to assault, the other charges were dismissed. She was put on a three-year probation, which requires her to abstain from alcohol, submit to drug testing and violate no laws.
“I can’t get in any fights,” she said in a podcast that year, “not that I think I ever would because I’m not an aggressive person at all.”
Ms. Paul has publicly discussed the fallout from the assault at length — on “Mormon Wives” and on podcasts — saying that it prompted her to see a therapist, start anxiety medication and stop drinking alcohol.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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