Taylor Frankie Paul has admitted she wouldn't be shocked if her ex-boyfriend and "baby daddy" Dakota Mortensen unexpectedly showed up on her season of The Bachelorette.
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Taylor just began filming The Bachelorette's 22nd season, and she'll be shown handing out roses when the show returns to ABC in 2026.
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When asked how she'd react if Dakota showed up on her season, Taylor, 31, told Entertainment Tonight, "I wouldn't be shocked."
In a clip of Taylor's interview shared by @ZacharyReality via X, Taylor continued, "I don't know [if I'd welcome him]. I don't know how I would react."
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Taylor and Dakota appeared to split in late 2024 after more than two years of dating, although Taylor didn't confirm their breakup until earlier this year.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star admitted that if Dakota stepped out of a limo on Night 1 as one of her bachelors, she wouldn't even flinch.
"[I'd say], 'Shocker you're here!'" Taylor shared in a sarcastic tone.
"[If] he's here and he wants to try, like, that wouldn't shock me. And also, it's kind of the same thing with bad news from him. 'Shocker, you did it again!' It's just for me, I wouldn't be shocked. How I'd react? I don't know."
The #MomTok creator said her goal was to keep an open mind during filming.
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Taylor's mother Liann May recently claimed on "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" that Taylor and Dakota still love each other and he'll sabotage her The Bachelorette season if given the chance.
Liann shared how she and a nanny will be helping Taylor, a divorced mother of three kids, with her youngest son Ever True -- whom she welcomed with Dakota in March 2024 -- when she films The Bachelorette.
When The Bachelor alum Ashley Iaconetti asked if the baby's father will be around during filming this fall, Liann replied of Dakota, "I'm hoping not."
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Liann went on to reveal, "I said that he will mess the whole thing up for her. He will sabotage her whole experience."
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"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.
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Liann claimed it "would be a disadvantage" for her daughter to have Dakota on the set.
"[He'd be] very distracting," Liann noted.
Liann admitted there is still a lot of love between Taylor and Dakota, which doesn't help the situation.
"Oh yeah, she so loves him," Liann revealed, "and I believe that he truly loves her."
Liann went on to tease, "I can't talk about it, but on Season 3, you'll see a lot that went on with him that came out -- and it was just not good."
Liann was referring to Taylor's Hulu reality series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which is set to release new episodes on November 13.
"And so it made all of us, just, I don't know. It's just shocking!" Liann vented.
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Liann recalled Dakota being "really shocked" when he first discovered Taylor signed on to helm The Bachelorette's next season.
"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."
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Shortly after Taylor was officially announced as The Bachelorette star, Taylor admitted on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast that she hooked up with Dakota after their breakup.
The reality TV star also confessed that she had yet to break the news of her The Bachelorette casting to Dakota.
"I have not confirmed it with him. It's just not something that's been on, like, my priority list to confirm with him," Taylor told Us Weekly at the time.
"I don't know exactly how he'll react or feel, but he does know that we opened the gates of dating other people. [He'll] probably [be] sad. I assume that it's like, 'Whoa, she's going to be dating people, a lot, and then also, in front of me,' and that's probably going to be kind of hard to watch."
Taylor continued, "I can't speak for him, but I'd assume it wouldn't be the best news he's heard on that day."
Several days later, Dakota expressed support for Taylor on social media.
"I am happy for Tay, and I hope she finds happiness," Dakota captioned a September 12 TikTok video.
Before getting romantically involved with Dakota, Taylor was married Tate Paul.
Taylor and Tate got married in 2016 and welcomed two children together: daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5.
Taylor had admitted to violating the rules of the couple's soft-swinging arrangement by becoming more intimate with another man in their friend group, which led to their separation and eventual May 2022 divorce.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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