Taylor Frankie Paul is back filming Mormon Wives, and one castmate walked out over what she saw in March
Yesterday she said she was leaving and would not say why. Tonight she named it: the show brought back the one person she had told producers she would not film with, and she has not shot a day since they said yes to her.
Taylor Frankie Paul is filming The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives again. Variety confirmed it with multiple sources on Tuesday afternoon; Hulu declined to comment. Two hours later Mikayla Matthews, who announced her exit a day earlier without giving a reason, gave one on Instagram.
Her account is specific about the order of events. She signed on for season 6 on a condition, filmed while that condition held, and stopped the moment it did not:
"The ONLY reason I'm leaving the show is because I was told a certain person was coming back. I told them before agreeing to do season 6 that I wasn't going to film if that certain someone came back because it's UNETHICAL and kids are involved."
She says she has not filmed a day since being told, and that she will still do the interviews she is contractually owed for the episodes already in the can. She also says she gave no ultimatum and has no say in casting — which is the part that makes this a production story rather than a feud.
Paul has not been on camera since March
Outside her season 5 confessionals, Paul stopped shooting in March, when production paused over a police investigation into domestic violence allegations she and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen made against each other. TMZ then published video of a separate incident between them, and ABC cancelled the season of The Bachelorette she had been cast to lead. Since then the two have taken out mutual restraining orders and gone into a custody fight over their son.
A reality show can survive losing a cast member. What it cannot survive is a cast member explaining, on the record, what the production knew before it made the call.
Six months in the order they happened
The season 6 that Hulu is shooting now is the third version of this show in under a year:
- March — production pauses; police investigate mutual domestic violence allegations.
- Spring — TMZ publishes video of a separate incident; ABC drops her Bachelorette season.
- Season 5 — cut short, with Paul appearing only in confessionals.
- Summer — season 6 begins filming without her; Matthews takes part.
- September 14–15 — Matthews quits, then names the reason.
Matthews says the hardest part is not what viewers found unwatchable in season 5, but that it was her daily life while they were watching it. Hulu still has not said anything at all.
Previously we wrote: Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski separated a while ago: the marriage that started in secret ended the same way
