Taylor Frankie Paul's The Bachelorette winner, Doug Mason, has opened up about when he realized Taylor wasn't over her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen and why he proposed marriage to her anyway.
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It has since been confirmed that Doug was Taylor's The Bachelorette winner, he popped the question during the finale, and the pair broke up shortly after returning home.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' fifth season showed Taylor admitting that she had cheated on Doug with Dakota post-filming and therefore broke off her engagement to Doug, whose intentions had already been questioned by Taylor's Mormon Wives co-stars.
It's been 10 months since Doug proposed marriage to Taylor, and he admitted he was excited to talk about moving on from his failed engagement during the October 13 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, co-hosted by Charity Lawson and Rachel Recchia.
"[My breakup] been stowed away in a secret part of my head and my heart for far too long," Doug teased.
When looking back on his The Bachelorette journey, Doug acknowledged there were a couple of key moments when he doubted Taylor and their potential to make it work as a couple.
"The main reason that I doubted Taylor was I had this inkling that Taylor was not over her ex. I don't know [why]. I had this strange, gut feeling and I wrote about it multiple times in my journal," Doug revealed.
Doug confirmed he was talking about Dakota and elaborated, "The constant comparisons to Dakota, her not speaking up for me in certain moments on a specific date, changed almost the entire experience for me."
Doug vented about how he "represented a character to the plot" on The Bachelorette.
"She has a type. I fit the 'type.' And I felt judged, because it wasn't actually me. It was certain attributes of my face!" Doug lamented.
"So I'm thinking, 'That's extremely superficial. Why are these people judging me based on my eye color and my beard? Are you kidding me?! I'm a fully different person.' However, it's also not that you're being compared to an ex who was full of love."
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Doug noted how he was annoyed about repeatedly being compared to an ex "who was a cheater and a liar, based on stories" he's heard.
Doug acknowledged that Dakota "might be a great guy" but Taylor and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has depicted him in the opposite light.
"It was disheartening to be compared to somebody who was so bad to Taylor," Doug said.
Doug admitted he actually walked away from a group date because he "could not escape" the Dakota comparisons.
"Everything that we had up until that point was genuine and true. But when [a female guest star] came in on that group date that day mentioned Dakota's name and said that I was compared to Dakota, Taylor's energy completely shifted and saw me as the bad guy," he shared.
"[Taylor] was almost looking at Dakota [when looking] at me!... She agreed with the lady. After everything I had said and done, it didn't mean anything to [Taylor]. I reminded her of Dakota."
Doug complained about how Taylor didn't stand up for him that day, and he said he eventually came to the conclusion that Taylor couldn't wait to return home to Dakota.
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"And the reason that's true is because, as she says, the night that she left the engagement, she went back to Dakota."
Doug said he had spoken up about his reservations in the middle of a one-on-one date with Taylor during the season.
"I point-blank told Taylor that I had doubts about [her] and if I fit into her life, and I wanted to be straight up," he recalled.
"I think I said on camera -- and the recordings will show it -- 'I'm having doubts, but I wanted you to know [that]. That doesn't mean I'm walking... [but] this is how I feel. I'm not trying to hide anything from you, but's it a lot.'"
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Doug said he felt "a genuine connection" with Taylor but couldn't hide how he truly felt.
"Taylor responded extremely relaxed -- almost relieved," Doug claimed.
Doug also revealed that, during his Fantasy Suite date, he found out Taylor had slept with Dakota prior to leaving for The Bachelorette.
"Over and over, I kept having this moment, 'She's not over Dakota, she's not over Dakota.' I didn't know she slept with him -- oh, wait, let's go back. She told me. Right before the proposal, she told me on camera," he confessed.
"Taylor told me on camera that she felt guilty, she had to get something off of her chest. This was the day of Fantasy Suites. The date before Fantasy Suites, she tells me that she slept with Dakota before she came to the show."
Doug said he was "understanding" of that revelation because she had hooked up with Dakota before they met and he "got caught up in romantic gestures."
Doug admitted that proposing marriage to Taylor was a "spontaneous" decision and he thought Taylor had joined The Bachelorette for a proposal -- and so he was going to be the man to give it to her.
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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 recently announced she's leaving The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which is currently filming its sixth season.
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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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
