The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Taylor Frankie Paul is opening up about a diagnosis she previously received.
“I was diagnosed with PTSD about two years ago which I assume is now CPTSD … by more than one therapist for all those that assumed diagnoses,” Paul, 31, wrote via her Instagram Story on Sunday, April 19.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) can be the result of “experiencing chronic trauma,” like “prolonged child abuse or domestic violence,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Paul reposted a 2024 video, where she filmed herself biting her lips while looking in the distance. “Just incase [you] didn’t know what dissociation and anxiety look like,” Paul wrote over the clip.
In a separate video from 2025, Paul was seen smiling for the camera as she explained that she could tell that she “disassociated” when she pulled out her car keys to open her hotel room door. “Sat there for a couple minutes trying to open my hotel door,” she wrote.
In a third slide, Paul shared an image of herself smiling at the TIME100 Creators event in 2025 along with a video of her applying lipgloss.
“How many of us are masters of smiling through it? I cry a lot and high chance someone next to you does this and you have no idea. I just want to heal so I can try and help people in this,” Paul wrote.
In March, Mormon Wives halted production on season 5 due to an alleged domestic violence incident between Paul and ex Dakota Mortensen. Her season 22 of The Bachelorette was also pulled by ABC.
Paul and Mortensen have since filed temporary restraining orders against each other, with him gaining custody of their 2-year-old son, Ever. Taylor has been granted supervised visits for at least six hours per week until their protective hearing on April 30. The judge will then reevaluate her parenting time restrictions. (Taylor is also the mom of daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5, whom she shares with ex-husband Tate Paul.)
Us Weekly confirmed on Tuesday, April 14, that Taylor would not be charged as a result of the alleged dispute between her and Mortensen in February.
“After reviewing reports and evidence submitted to the Draper Police Department and West Jordan Police Department, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges against Taylor Frankie Paul,” District Attorney Sim Gill’s office said in a statement obtained by Us on at the time.
On Sunday, Taylor got candid about her healing journey in a separate Instagram post.
“Here come the ugly parts of what healing actually looks like,” Taylor wrote. “If you know me you know I’ll admit my parts, flaws, and faults. I’m well aware that’s [a part] of it. We’ll get there.”
She continued, “This public atrocity that I not only lived through once but twice now, on even a bigger scale was ultimately the cost to my freedom. I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy or even the ones who publicized it. I cried on my knees in pain while also saying THANK YOU.”
Taylor shared that she has a “road ahead,” but “regardless [she’s] forever freed from a certain living hell” she “couldn’t find [her] way out of.”
“Metaphorically someone witnessed me bleeding out and poured salt all over me … somehow I’m still here,” she wrote. “As we can see barely because I believe God held me through and sent help plus an army which makes me cry because, thank you to all of you that supported [me] even without full context.”
She continued, “God undoubtedly had a hand in this because after waiting 7 weeks on the 7th day EXACTLY I received the call all charges dropped. Those are his numbers symbolic [of] his plans which I’m nervous to see what’s in store … steps moving forward are the very basics.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
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