Taylor Frankie Paul’s Ex Dakota Hopes She's 'Happy' on 'Bachelorette'

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Dakota Mortensen has more to say about his ex-girlfriend Taylor Frankie Paul taking on a new role as the next Bachelorette.

“I am happy for Tay, and I hope she finds happiness,” Dakota, 32, captioned a Friday, September 12, TikTok video, parodying Taylor’s previous upload wishing to be the next Bachelor Nation lead.

ABC announced earlier this week that Taylor, 31, will now carry the Bachelorette mantle and hand out roses next season. Months earlier, she teased her wish to join the show by lip-synching Lindsay Lohan’s Super Bowl commercial about looking for love.

“Is this how it works to be the next Bachelor?” Dakota asked in his own video, also mouthing along to Lohan’s sound.

“Hi, my name is Lindsay and I’m searching for love,” Lohan, 39, originally said, in a parody of The Bachelor. “I’m recently single, I think, and I’m looking for someone I can spend the rest of my life with — or at least the rest of my probation with. A little about me: I’m an actress, a singer [and] an entrepreneur.”

Taylor recently told Us Weekly that she hadn’t informed Dakota of her Bachelorette casting ahead of the Wednesday, September 10, “Call Her Daddy” announcement.

“I have not confirmed it with him. It’s just not something that’s been on, like, my priority list to confirm with him,” she exclusively told Us. “I don’t know exactly how he’ll react or feel, but he does know that we opened the gates of dating other people. [He’ll] probably [be] sad. I assume that it’s like, ‘Whoa, she’s gonna be dating people, a lot, and then also, in front of me,’ and that’s probably gonna be kind of hard to watch.”

Taylor continued, “I can’t speak for him, but I’d assume it wouldn’t be the best news he’s heard on that day.”

Taylor and Dakota share 17-month-old son Ever, while the MomTok influencer also coparents daughter Indy, 7, and son Ocean, 4, with ex-husband Tate Paul.

As Taylor starts her Bachelorette journey, she’s not afraid to admit that she hopes she’ll be engaged by the finale.

“Definitely, that’s the goal here, and as my mom likes to say [that] I do fall in love quickly, and that’s also the reason I did it,” Taylor said. “I always call myself a lover girl because I, like, fall for people and I have done that in the past. Obviously, I got married young, and the first guy I dated was my second baby daddy — so it was just very quick.”

She added, “I’m going to take my time [and] get to know people. Maybe I learned things I didn’t like or do like that I didn’t even know. So I think this is gonna be really good for the long-term effect.”

Taylor’s season of The Bachelorette airs in 2026.