Bachelorette spoilers: Who does Taylor Frankie Paul pick as her 'The Bachelorette' winner? Is Taylor engaged? (SPOILERS)
PHOTO GALLERY
Taylor Frankie Paul's mom had warned Taylor was still in love with Dakota Mortensen before 'The Bachelorette'
Instagram / Liann May
Before Taylor Frankie Paul's The Bachelorette season began, her mother Liann May had insisted Taylor was still in love with Dakota Mortensen and he would sabotage her The Bachelorette experience if given the chance.
During an October 2025 interview on "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" Liann had revealed she and a nanny would be helping Taylor take her of her three children -- including her youngest son Ever True, whom she welcomed with Dakota in March 2024 -- when The Bachelorette's 22nd season began filming later that month.
"Oh yeah, she so loves him," she told the podcast co-host Ashley Iaconetti about the current status of Taylor and Dakota's relationship, "and I believe that he truly loves her."
Liann then insisted Taylor's relationship with Dakota could derail her entire The Bachelorette season.
"He will mess the whole thing up for her [if he's around]," she insisted. "He will sabotage her whole experience."
"And so, I'm just like, 'If you can just keep him away, for at least those weeks, there might be some hope of her focusing in on this whole process of dating,'" she added.
Liann, however, couldn't pinpoint how exactly Dakota would try to sabotage Taylor's The Bachelorette opportunity.
"I don't know. Well, I guess if she can't have contact with him, he might not be able to [mess it up]. But he wanted to be there," Liann revealed.
"He wanted to be there with the baby?!" Ashley asked for clarification.
"Yes! And so I'm just like, 'Noo, that will not be good,' just because she will not be able to enjoy her time there, and it just wouldn't be good," Liann explained.
Liann claimed it "would be a disadvantage" for her daughter to have Dakota on the set.
"[He'd be] very distracting," Liann noted.
Liann recalled Dakota being "really shocked" when he discovered Taylor was going to star on The Bachelorette.
"He's been like, 'Don't!' I think he doesn't want her to go on it. I know he's done videos saying otherwise, but I don't think he wants her to go on it," Liann said.
"Obviously he still loves her. I just don't feel like he loved her enough -- or at least, I mean he wouldn't have done the things that he did. So, I don't know."
Liann claimed that she was actually "rooting" for Dakota to end up with her daughter, before he apparently messed up.
"I didn't like him at first but then I grew to like him because he's one of those guys that has that charisma and he's a good looking guy. He's kind of manly and came from a farm," Liann explained.
She concluded, "I gave him a chance and then he proved me right, so I'm just like, 'Oh man, I don't know!'"
