TAYLOR FRANKIE PAUL SAYS SHE IS STEPPING BACK FROM MORMON WIVES

Taylor Frankie Paul has said she does not wish to continue on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, according to an Instagram post shared on Monday. Paul thanked the networks that had supported her and given her the chance to return, but wrote: "I don't desire to move forward like this." She said she had originally been willing to be removed from the show to reduce stress for the rest of the cast and had returned to that position. Paul said some cast members were aware of what she had been through, yet had joined together in issuing statements against her. She said members of the cast had made comments about her children, which she described as bullying that had continued for months.

Paul rose to prominence on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, a Hulu series following a group of Utah-based Mormon women known as "MomTok" who bonded over posting dancing videos on TikTok. The show was created after Paul named some of the group's members as swingers in a social media post. Paul is currently in a legal dispute with her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, the father of their son, Ever; she also shares two children with her ex-husband, Tate Paul. Paul has been involved in a number of controversies in recent months, which led to the cancellation of her planned season as The Bachelorette. Season five of the show began airing on Hulu on 10 September.

In her post, Paul said she had always treated production and crew with respect and that they had checked on her throughout the dispute with cast members. She said it was "a pleasure" to remove herself so the rest of the cast could continue, while adding that she had "almost convinced" herself she deserved the criticism she had received. Paul noted that some other parents involved had made mistakes she said would attract similar judgement, without naming them. No network has issued a statement confirming Paul's departure from the show.