For real this time, I don’t think MomTok will survive. Anyone on social media has been bombarded the past week with news that Taylor Frankie Paul has been dropped from “The Bachelorette,” which she was set to star in, after a video of a domestic violence incident from 2023 came out. 

Touting a bright grin and a book reading “The Book of More Men,” people had already taken issue with Paul, a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, being the leading love interest in “The Bachelorette.” 

Now, while “The Bachelorette” isn’t exactly known for class, decorum, or long-lasting relationships, people seemed to draw the line with clueing in Paul to this avenue of reality TV. 

For the uninitiated (sometimes I wish I fell into this category), Paul came into public attention after exposing the swinging ring going on within her “MomTok” group on TikTok. This drama spawned the Hulu reality show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” (SLOMW) which chronicled the fallout, pregnancies, relationship drama and friend group drama with a sprinkle of the Mormon doctrine of the MomTok group. 

While there are other women in the group who are as bombastic and ridiculous as Paul, she gained significant attention after being announced as the next Bachelorette. This was a huge breakthrough for her, and it happened simultaneously with her co-stars appearing on Dancing with the Stars and starring on Broadway. 

It appeared that Paul was on the up and up, something new for her, as she had a litany of glaring problems on SLOMW that the cameras were unafraid to film. Then, last week, a video was released, showing an altercation between her and Dakota, her on-again, off-again boyfriend who is the father of one of her children, which also involved one of her young children. (It has since come out that her child remained unharmed). 

Let me make it very clear that I condemn the actions in this video, and Paul deserves the fallout coming from this. “The Bachelorette” is making the right decision to not platform her and brush over this incident of domestic violence. I hope that the legal system will run its course—like it is supposed to, in case we forgot. 

The most recent news out of the MomTok-sphere is that Jessi Draper, owner of JZ Styles and another character on SLOMW, was caught kissing Chase McWhorter, the ex-husband of Miranda Hope. This should be shocking for the good Mormon doctrine, but given the history of swinging and husband sharing, this was par for the course. Swinging usually means that everyone is consenting to what is happening and is aware of what is happening. As a result, Jessi sent Miranda flowers as an apology. 

Once again, things are not so good on the Mormon front. This story is still unfolding, and there are a lot of details still coming out. This, coupled with the announcement that SLOMW will be halting filming, makes the future of the show unclear.