A Utah court has denied a bid by the ex-husband of reality television star Taylor Frankie Paul to secure a restraining order against her and change their custody arrangement, days after the star completed a brief, voluntary stay at a mental health treatment facility.
Tate Paul, 34, filed for the temporary restraining order in a Utah court on Tuesday, alongside a separate petition to modify the terms of the couple’s 2022 divorce and custody agreement, according to court documents obtained by People. He had reportedly sought sole custody of the couple’s two children, eight-year-old Indy and six-year-old Ocean. Commissioner Kim Luhn denied the request on Wednesday, ruling that Tate’s allegations were “based upon inadmissible hearsay, without any corroborating evidence.” The commissioner added that concerns such as the children struggling at school or appearing sad would need ongoing attention rather than an emergency change to custody, and noted that Taylor had told the court Tate had in fact left the children in her care for a week in June while he travelled to Iceland. Because the underlying filings remain sealed, it is not publicly known what specifically prompted Tate’s application.
Paul, star of the Hulu series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, responded to the ruling in a series of emotional posts on Instagram. She wrote that she had spent the day “crying and fighting” for her two older children after they returned from time with their father, saying they had been excited about spending the coming holiday with her and had been told the arrangement could even be extended, only for those plans to reportedly be withdrawn. Describing the experience as distressing to witness, she went on to accuse Tate of “abuse by proxy” and said she felt she was being penalised for seeking help, after voluntarily checking into treatment for her mental health. “Why would I ever ask for help again?” she wrote, adding that she had tested clean at the facility aside from medication she said she takes openly.
According to a source who spoke to People, Paul’s stay at the facility was undertaken on the recommendation of her doctor and lasted roughly a week; she has since been discharged. Little further detail has been made public about the treatment itself.
The dispute with Tate is unfolding alongside a separate, longer-running conflict between Paul and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, the father of her two-year-old son, Ever. In April, the pair were granted mutual protective orders against one another for three years, after both accused the other of acting violently during a series of altercations in February. Ruling on the case, Commissioner Russell Minas found there had been “violence both ways” between the couple, describing their relationship as “toxic” and “dysfunctional,” and ordered that the pair not be in the same place at the same time for the time being. He urged them to focus on co-parenting, telling them they would be “linked together” for the rest of their lives and that how they handled conflict would shape their son’s upbringing. A subsequent ruling on 1 June granted Paul custody of Ever on a set weekday each week, without overnight stays, as well as alternating weekends. Despite the criminal allegations raised during the case, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office said it had declined to file charges against Paul after reviewing evidence submitted by the Draper and West Jordan police departments.
Paul’s attorney, Eric M. Swinyard, described the April ruling as a “significant step forward” at the time, telling People that Paul had been candid with the court about her own imperfections, in what he characterised as a contrast to the other side’s approach. He said Paul felt solidarity with survivors who had endured similar experiences “behind closed doors,” and remained grateful for the public support she had received.
Paul’s mother, Liann May, has also spoken out publicly in her daughter’s defence, writing on her own Instagram Story that both men knew Paul to be “a GREAT mother” and warning that keeping the children from her would only cause them harm.
The overlapping legal battles come against the backdrop of a turbulent few years in the public eye for Paul, whose earlier conflict with Mortensen — including footage of a 2023 altercation between the pair that later surfaced publicly — reportedly contributed to ABC’s decision to shelve a season of The Bachelorette that had already been filmed with her as the lead. The Daily Mail said it had contacted Paul, Tate Paul and Mortensen for comment.
Anyone in the UK affected by issues of domestic abuse can contact the free, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, run by Refuge.
