Jessi Draper Believes Dakota Leaked Taylor Frankie Paul's 2023 Video
"The timing is a little crazy."
As the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives drama has reached a disastrous new peak, Jessi Draper has a pretty good idea of who’s really behind the franchise’s biggest mess. Just three days before Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette was going to premiere, TMZ released a previously sealed video of Paul and Dakota Mortensen’s 2023 domestic violence incident (which Paul pled guilty to at the time). ABC cited the video when announcing the network would no longer be airing Paul’s Bachelorette season later that day.
Draper opened up about the source of this interestingly timed video leak during her March 25 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “I don't know who it is, but if I had to guess it’s Dakota,” Draper said when asked who sent TMZ the three-year-old tape. Mortensen filmed the video, and also expressed his concerns with his ex going on The Bachelorette in Season 4 of SLOMW.
“Everyone's speculating about the timing, could be it. I definitely think that has something to do with it,” Draper continued. “I don't know if he was like holding it over her head for that long, maybe they were doing that to each other. I have no clue what the ins and outs, but I just think the timing is a little crazy.”
Not only did the footage tank Paul’s Bachelorette season, it was also a factor in Mormon Wives halting its Season 5 filming. Mortensen had also filed a new domestic violence charge against Paul shortly before the video was leaked, which caught Draper by surprise.
“I'm sure there are situations in the past where he could have and didn't, and same with her. So because of that I was like, ‘Why now?’” Draper said. “I don’t know the reason behind it, kind of speculating on that. But I think maybe he had hit a limit. Maybe, I don't know. I genuinely have no idea.”
Despite the setbacks in Paul’s career at the present, Draper is confident her friend is going to bounce back. “I think she's gonna handle this in the best way possible and I think she's taking a beat to figure that out,” Draper said. “She's not just running into TMZ leaking stories, so I think that's the right way to go about it.”
