Doug Mason has finally addressed his broken The Bachelorette engagement to Taylor Frankie Paul.
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[Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Taylor's unaired The Bachelorette season.]
Taylor's The Bachelorette season was canceled in March after a 2023 video leaked of her attacking her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, the father of her two-year-old son, Ever True.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
But Season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which was released September 10 on Hulu, spoiled Taylor's Final 3 The Bachelorette suitors and revealed that she got engaged to Doug at the end of filming.
"Let's talk about The Bachelorette," Doug, 29, said in a video he posted via Instagram Stories on Monday, September 28.
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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives also showed Taylor admitting she had cheated on Doug with Dakota.
Taylor and her The Bachelorette winner, whose relationship clearly unraveled in the real world, ultimately called off their engagement after Taylor decided to rekindle her relationships with Dakota, as well as former flame Ben Lambert.
"That experience has been looming in my life for some time, and although I've been moved on for a long time, I think it's important that I expressed to you guys that I have," Doug continued in the video.
"I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to go on the show, and I met some brothers and I learned a lot about myself."
The Bachelorette's Season 22 winner concluded, "I have officially moved on and this is me saying that I am going that way, so I hope that everybody can understand that it was in my past and now focusing on my future."
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On Mormon Wives' latest season, Jessi Draper, Mikayla Matthews and Mayci Neeley met Taylor's Final 3 suitors -- Doug, Dane and Lou -- while The Bachelorette was filming late last year, and the women made it clear Doug would be their last choice for Taylor.
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Mikayla was especially wary of Doug and questioned his authenticity given he's a model and singer who was also pursuing a rap career under the name "Toned Bone."
Despite her friends' reservations, Taylor admitted she'd been drawn to Doug from the beginning of The Bachelorette.
"I am engaged to Doug. He was the one that I liked from Night 1," Taylor revealed. "There was instant chemistry the entire time."
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Taylor said she hadn't necessarily expected the relationship to progress to an engagement, but Doug proposed at the last minute and she accepted.
Taylor then confessed that once she returned home to Utah, she began seeing Dakota again, despite still being engaged.
Taylor compared her pull toward Dakota to being addicted to a powerful drug.
"It's messed up, cheating in any capacity," Mikayla said in a confessional. "And even though the Toned Bone wasn't my top choice, or top second choice, or third or fourth, it's wrong."
While Taylor was engaged to Doug, she also reconnected with Ben, who reached out just days after she returned home from filming.
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Taylor revealed that she was skeptical of Doug's intentions and decided their relationship needed to end during a "happy couple" visit, which is a private meeting set up by The Bachelorette producers.
"There was a point that it clicked. I was like, 'This isn't going to work, and I'm going to break it off,'" Taylor recalled.
She elaborated, "I didn't know he was trying to be an upcoming artist until up to the very end. In his mind, I think he probably convinced himself, 'Well, we can get engaged. Give everyone a happy ending here. Figure it out after the fact.' So I broke it off."
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While Taylor confessed she felt "relieved" -- like she could finally "breathe" again -- after their breakup, she feared getting "annihilated by everyone" in Bachelor Nation for having a "horrible" The Bachelorette outcome.
Miranda, however, comforted Taylor by saying she has the tools to handle adversity, to which Taylor joked that nothing could be worse than spending time in jail.
Taylor was arrested in February 2023 for an altercation with Dakota, and the pair have recently been embroiled in a legal and custody dispute. They accused each other of domestic violence in February and subsequently filed dueling restraining orders.
Not only did Taylor and Dakota drama prompt ABC to pull the plug on Taylor's The Bachelorette season, but The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives also temporarily halted production on Season 5 this past spring.
Taylor shared via Instagram earlier this month that Ben is a "patient, gentle, kind and understanding" man who tried to help her escape the toxic "cycle" she's been in with Dakota.
"Saying goodbye in the show was the last time I saw him and deeply mourned him. We've gone our separate ways," she said.
Taylor continued, "I had to let him go because I knew he deserved so much better. My nervous system remembered what calm felt like around him, helped me through panic attacks, he listened to me cry, held space and soothed. He reminded me that I am a good mother even [when] struggling."
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Taylor said his support meant "so much" to her and she's "sorry for all the heartache" she caused him.
In addition to Ever, Taylor also shares daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 6, with her ex-husband Tate Paul.
Taylor recently announced she's leaving The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which is currently filming its sixth season.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Click here to read all the spoilers for Taylor's The Bachelorette season and find out her winner and how her journey ended.
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