The world finally knows what went down between The Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul and her winner, Doug Mason.
**Spoilers for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 5, now on Hulu**
After months of confusion about what happened during The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star’s axed season of The Bachelorette, details have finally emerged thanks to the new season of the Hulu reality series. In Season 5, TFP admits that she walked away from the show engaged to Mason, a 29-year-old lifeguard from Idaho, after previously stating she did not intend to get engaged on the series.
According to Paul, the dating show came down to Doug Mason, Shane Parton, and Lew Evans in the end, with Bachelorette production flying out Taylor’s Secret Lives co-stars Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Matthews, and Jessi Draper to meet the final three. The ladies tell Taylor that they preferred Shane and Lew for Taylor, as Doug reminded them too much of Taylor’s on-again, off-again ex and baby daddy, Dakota Mortensen. Remember, Taylor hooked up with Dakota mere days before flying to California for filming, which was captured in the final moments of Season 4.
After returning from filming for The Bachelorette, Taylor informs the girls that she ended up getting engaged to Doug, but that since being back in Utah, she has hooked up with Dakota again. This immediately takes her fellow MomTok members by surprise, as Mayci and Mikayla are shocked by how casually Taylor is talking about cheating on her fiancé. Furthermore, TFP explains that even during her time on The Bachelorette, she never found someone she liked half as much as Ben Lambert, the musician from TikTok who was featured in Secret Lives Season 4.
Ultimately, Taylor admits to canceling her “Happy Couple” — a private visit set up by ABC production between the show lead and their winner — and calling off her engagement to Doug. Not only does Taylor say that things have felt awkward since the filming ended, but she also began to wonder if Doug — an amateur rapper — was there for the right reasons or just trying to use her for clout. While Doug is often mentioned during filming of Season 5, he is never actually featured on camera or seen in any other way.
After ending things with Doug just weeks after filming concluded, Taylor — who was not allowed to publicly date anyone due to her Bachelorette NDA — flew Ben to New York while MomTok was there to see Whitney Leavitt in Chicago. Because Taylor could not be seen with another man before The Bachelorette airs, she forces him to stay in the penthouse the entire four-day trip, and even has him check in as her brother at the hotel front desk. She ultimately ends things with Ben while in The Big Apple, however, as the other MomTok members express that she just needs to be single for a while.
Before things can move any further with Doug, Ben, or even Dakota, the Taylor scandal blows up online and at the end of Episode 5, “The Book of Destruction,” which leads into her public court battle with Dakota and the cancelation of her season of The Bachelorette. The season abruptly ends, however, before any resolution can come on the Taylor-Dakota front, as production teases “to be continued” as the final message.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 5 is now streaming on Hulu.
If you’re new to Hulu, the basic (with ads) price is $11.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.
If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $12.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $32.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.