Most people know Dakota Mortensen as the polarizing figure from Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. He’s the guy who stepped into the whirlwind of Taylor Frankie Paul’s life right after her world imploded. But long before the "soft swinging" scandals or the dramatic reality TV reunions in late 2025, Dakota lived a very different life. Honestly, if you only watch the show, you're missing the most intense part of his backstory.
There is a frequent misconception that Taylor is his first serious commitment. That's not even close to the truth. Before the TikTok fame and the "MomTok" drama, there was a first marriage. It was a relationship that defined his early twenties and ultimately served as the backdrop for his rock bottom.
Dakota Mortensen Ex Wife: Who Was She?
Dakota has been surprisingly open about his past, specifically during his 2025 appearance on The Viall Files. He grew up in a tight-knit Mormon family in Idaho, living the life of a college-bound basketball star. During those years, he fell for his high-school sweetheart. They eventually married, seemingly heading toward the "perfect" Mormon life many in their community strive for.
She wasn't a reality star. She wasn't an influencer. She was a woman who stood by him as a promising athlete's life began to unravel due to a devastating knee injury.
The injury led to a prescription for pain pills. We’ve heard this story before, but for Dakota, it was literal. What started as a way to get through practice spiraled into a severe opioid addiction. His ex-wife was the one in the trenches with him during the darkest moments of that transition from pills to heroin.
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Why the Marriage Ended
It wasn't just "growing apart." The marriage hit a breaking point that most people couldn't survive. Dakota has recounted a harrowing story of his ex-wife catching him smoking heroin. The shame was paralyzing. Even worse, he once overdosed right in front of her.
Imagine that for a second.
You’re married to your high-school sweetheart, and you're watching the person you love disappear into a substance. She eventually walked out. When she left, Dakota says he hit his absolute rock bottom, yet he also felt a strange, terrifying sense of "freedom" because he no longer had anything left to lose.
Moving From Idaho to the Utah Spotlight
By the time Dakota met Taylor Frankie Paul in 2022, he was a recovering addict with a lot of baggage and a very public desire for redemption. He had moved from Middletown, Idaho, to Utah, trying to build a new life.
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The contrast between his two major relationships is wild.
- The First Marriage: Private, rooted in shared history, destroyed by the internal demon of addiction.
- The Taylor Frankie Paul Era: Public, chaotic, fueled by reality TV cameras and "soft swinging" fallout.
His ex-wife has largely remained out of the spotlight, which is probably a smart move considering how toxic the MomTok discourse can get. While Dakota was trying to convince Taylor to marry him throughout 2024, his past marriage was a constant shadow. Taylor herself mentioned being hesitant to walk down the aisle again because of her own divorce from Tate Paul, but Dakota’s history with marriage and addiction also played into the lack of trust.
The 2025-2026 Fallout
As of early 2026, Dakota’s romantic life is still a mess. After he and Taylor officially called it quits in December 2024—despite having their son, Ever True—the drama didn't stop. We saw him flirting with model Brooks Nader at the Season 3 launch party in late 2025. Then there was the bombshell revelation during the reunion about him allegedly having an affair with a family friend.
His parents, Liann and Jeremy, haven't held back either. They’ve called him "dishonest" on national television. It makes you wonder if those same patterns were what ended his first marriage. Dakota admits he made "dumb mistakes" and lied to Taylor multiple times, but he often attributes it to a fear of not being fully loved back.
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What We Can Learn From Dakota’s History
Dakota Mortensen’s journey from a married basketball player in Idaho to a single dad on a controversial reality show is a cautionary tale about how fast life can shift. It's also a reminder that "reality" on screen is only about 10% of a person's actual timeline.
If you're following the drama, it's important to look at the patterns:
- The Addiction Factor: Recovery is a lifelong process. Dakota uses his platform now for fentanyl awareness, which is a noble pivot from his past.
- The Trust Gap: You can't build a second marriage on the shaky ground of a first one's trauma without serious work.
- The Reality TV Trap: Being a "villain" or a "red flag" on Hulu is one thing; being a co-parent in real life is another.
If you’re looking to understand the man behind the "red flags," you have to look at the Idaho years. You have to look at the high-school sweetheart who had to walk away to save herself. That's the real story.
Next Steps for Followers:
If you're interested in the nuances of recovery and how it impacts relationships, listen to Dakota’s full interview on The Viall Files. It provides much more context than the edited snippets on TikTok. Additionally, if you're watching The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, pay close attention to the Season 3 reunion—it fills in the gaps regarding his current legal battles over custody and why his relationship with Taylor finally reached the point of no return.