The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Taylor Frankie Paul vs Dakota Mortensen - New Developments in Court!

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

Ashley and Producer Heather have the updates on Taylor Frankie Paul, from her voluntary rehab stay to her ongoing custody battle with Dakota. We have all the details on the new rules around her parenting time, and we deliver the latest news between Taylor and her ex-husband, Tate. This latest news leaves us wondering...is Taylor technically part of Bachelor Nation if her season never airs??See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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almost famous podcast with iHeartRadio. Hey, welcome to the Taylor Frankie Paul show. Ha ha ha ha ha. It's the almost famous podcast. And I am here with Heather today breaking down the newest court moment for Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex-Dakota. Moments. We've got an update on the tape stuff too.

Yeah, wait. What happened there? I was trying to figure that out. So we know that he was denied the restraining order last week. and we weren't sure that yesterday's court appearance would have anything to do with Tate, but it did. No, I don't think yesterday's had to do with Tate, but it seems like there's additional proceedings going on separately pertaining to the custody of those children too right now so we can get into all of that. All right. So let's let's start with that. Taylor and her ex-Tate have not had a lot of issues that have been public, as we've known. But last week, he tried to get a restraining order from her. After he found out

that she went to rehab, a voluntary rehab stint that we believe lasted a week or less. Less. So that was confirmed yesterday. It was two days. Oh, goodness gracious. And it fell over Father's Day and she was like the Father's Day weekend. And she was very intentional with that because she knew that she wouldn't miss visitation with her youngest child because he would be with Dakota. So that was actually explained yesterday during her court hearing with Dakota. So because of that call, she was asked now by the courts to do drug testing and alcohol testing. And they're not going to just do something that's like a breathalyzer or anything like that. It's going to be a 15 panel hair or nail test as well as a Peth test for alcohol.

So basically this means that it's going to do research. This test will find out whether or not she's taking any prescription drugs, alcohol, recreational drugs for like the past months, right? Prescription, to be very clear, prescription drugs other than what she is currently being prescribed for her depression and anxiety. So this is the thing. She didn't tell Tate that she was going to rehab. So now he is using this as like, I didn't know why you were going to rehab. Like you didn't alert me.

And so he's using this. And Taylor has been very vocal about this on her socials that she went to seek help and now it's getting used against her. In her hearing yesterday with Dakota, it was brought up that she, She voluntarily went to rehab because she was transitioning into a new medication. And she wanted to make sure that she had the right people around her in case that there was some sort of reaction or negative impact. It's very smart.

We all hear on the commercials, if you don't know firsthand, that a lot of times going on certain antidepressants could actually lead you to suicidal thoughts. So she was being pretty responsible in doing that. Now, I don't understand why it would only be two days, but that's, I mean, you were saying it could have been the Father's Day thing. Maybe she's in and out, who the heck knows? Yeah, but either way. So it looks like she's offered to do this hair sample thing in order to, you know, help with the visitation. It seems like things are kind of in limbo right now with her other two children. Yeah.

Because she will have to share these with the results. with DCFS. It says wishing to review her treatment records and that she submitted the 15 panel hair or nail test as well as the Peth test for alcohol. If it's negative, Tate shall reimburse her for the cost of this. The cost of the test.

Okay. Oh, is the test going to be pricey? I'm sure it's not cheap to do, you know, something that's not a breathalyzer. She must take her prescriptions with her. and have a doctor verified that the levels in her system are consistent with her prescribed dosage. The ruling said,

and the results of Taylor's sobriety test will be subject to a strict protective order. Until such as the results have been issued, Taylor's parent time shall be supervised. It is in both parties' best interest that this supervision be professional so that there is an independent third party observing the interactions between mother and child,

a judge rule. gracious. So basically, she is going from having, what's a supervised visitation status with ever now? Well, that got increased as of yesterday. So she's having unsupervised visits with ever now. Unsupervised now. So now her other two kids will be supervised. Yeah. I mean, this is, it's very unfortunate, I think, for everybody involved. And we can get into again. our speculations about the show, quote unquote, airing now. Well, you and I, I feel like when we stepped on today, for the first time in a long time, I was like, why are we even doing?

I mean, I know why we're doing this. We have no other Bachelor News to cover. However, like, she's not a Bachelor Nation member anymore. She just isn't because there's no way this is going to air. Let me just check Taylor's Instagram while we're on here. Did we even go through what she posted? Was it Saturday? No, it was almost too much, guys.

It was too much. I literally, what did I say when I sent it? I said buckle up. And I sent all the photos. I have another friend who sent me everything that morning, too. Listen, Taylor has got, she's made headlines again this week for changing her status bio on Instagram. It now reads, creator of Mom Talk, Secret Lives of Morning. women wives, the Bachelorette, Jesus is king. You know, she's gotten some flack for that.

But let me just tell you, her most recent Instagram story is a picture of her looking at the camera. It says today was extremely difficult. Meanwhile, there has been at least 12 plus people throughout this trying to make it harder. Thank you, God, for revealing them all. I want to be nothing like them. They bully. I defend myself, not the same. Pay attention how this plays out. I trust. And then after that, she posted the most needed reminder. And then it's a passage highlighted from her worship book that we know she follows. Yeah, I think we'll get into the Dakota stuff that happened in that because it looks like, you know, he got a little slap on the wrist. Let's get into that for a second because it rolls over. The judge was like, oh, hey, by the way,

could you stop talking about each other on social media? And so that's one of the slaps on the wrist that they got. Wait, where did they say that? It says, and reiterated that neither of them should be talking badly about each other on social media. I mean, perfect. I mean, what's crazy is that was part of the initial. The initial thing. Yes, that was that he granted last month.

So this is crazy too. Dakota's out there taking ever a two-year-old. on a motorcycle. I'm sorry. No, what? I watched the footage of this scene because this court appearance was put out on the internet.

I did not watch the whole thing, but I did watch this clip. And Dakota's lawyer said, it's not really a motorcycle. It's an e-bike. And the judge goes, it's a motorcycle. He's two.

He's two. Okay. The judge goes, he's two. He's not 12. And he's like, So we're not going to do that anymore. And then the Dakota's lawyer was like, well, you can see in the photo that the child has a helmet.

Like we're wondering why this is even being brought up. How do you even strap a child to a e-bike? The judge just goes, he's two. He's not 12. So he was like, so we're not doing that anymore. Oh my gosh. I won't even let Jared go on a motorcycle. My dad, my dad, Dr. Dad, calls them suicidcles.

Yeah. So, yeah. That was one thing. And then there was some weird back and forth, obviously. It says that Dakota thinks that he claims that his son's crying is quote unquote, annoying to Taylor. So this was like in private text messages. In the past, where they actually exchanged text messages directly as they are in the past

two months or so not able to text each other directly. Yeah, says claims Taylor called their son Evers cries for him annoying in a private text message and we're told it's, TMZ is told it's one of several explosive alleged admissions. His attorneys are putting before a judge in their custody battle. In the court docs obtained by TMZ, Dakota's legal team filed a motion asking a judge to set aside a previous stipulation ahead of the hearing yesterday. Attached dozens of exhibits. say contain text conversations between the exes. According to exhibit titles, Dakota alleges Taylor said ever cries for him, ever's cries for him were annoying, admitted he didn't deserve the domestic violence. I'm not laughing. I'm just, I know, I know. It's wild, these things that I'm

reading. Plan to sabotage Dakota and mocked his safety concerns. Other exhibits are described as showing Taylor asking Dakota to disparage two unidentified people, baiting him during multiple exchanges, admitting she disassociates, provoking him over a medical issue before attacking him, sending dozens of unanswered texts between midnight and 4 a.m., sending graphically intimate messages about Dakota's lip tattoo, and cycling from arousal to anger in her texts.

In addition to the exhibits, Dakota's legal team submitted declarations from two witnesses in support of the motion. I could guess who one of those is. Although they don't know the contents of those declarations. A source close to Taylor's team tells TMZ, the other side continues to wage a misinformation campaign against her twisting facts and taking them out of context.

TMZ is told Taylor looks forward to addressing these in the court through the proper channels and, you know, which is what they did. And then they got into some, he said, she said text messages through Taylor's sister, Aspen, which that was weird to me. And we are going to have to get our legal expert. Can we talk about the fact that there's a Dakota involved in an Aspen? It's so funny.

But Taylor's sister is very young. Like she is on the show. She should definitely not be any sort of mediator go between persons. in this situation. She, I mean, there's, she should not be. But we're going to have to get our legal expert back on. She's on vacation enjoying life right now, which she should. But I need to know how this order of protection is not impacting the sister.

Like, she should not be involved in any of these text messages. Yeah, definitely not. Are the text messages old? Because obviously all these other things that Taylor, that Dakota's team is trying to bring in right now are old. the crying texts and the you didn't deserve domestic violence text and the lip tattoo. I don't know the dates of them,

but I will say the clips that I watched, it said that her team said that the text messages from Taylor's sister were heavily redacted that they said like it was like fractions of conversations and that she had the like lengthier versions to prove that like what was submitted in court was not actually factual of those text messages. So we'll have to see how this kind of unfolds because, you know, obviously each side is saying something different. But the positive outcome in all of this for Taylor was the

visitation elements getting changed. She gets a little bit extra time like in the morning on a Monday. It says, yeah, so at the hearing, the judge expanded Taylor's parent time to extend her weekends with Ever through Monday morning. It says that the judge also ordered that ever only be transported in an enclosed vehicle with age appropriate safety measures. With age appropriate safety measures. And he reiterated in an earlier order for neither Dakota or Taylor to make disparaging remarks about. the other on social media. I'm Cynthia Lois and I'm Josie Dye and we're done pretending

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Hey there, Amy Robach and TJ Holmes here from the Asian. Amy and T.J. podcast where we are doing the exact opposite of taking a summer vacation. Yeah, I can't do that. There's entirely too much going on in the world right now to not be talking about all this stuff. Yes, drama at the White House, drama at the World Cup, drama about the reflecting pool, and yes, drama at the villa pool on Love Island. All day, every day, we have you covered with the latest breaking news and the stories everyone will be talking about. Listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to The Orange Doesn't Fall Far, the podcast where reality TV meets real life. I'm Tamara Judge.

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Dakota's team is still trying to get evidence as to why she should have him less. I guess that's his ultimate goal. I know. So I'm like, why can't we just like, can we just start fresh? Can we just have a clean slate? Is his goal, is his goal just to have him like more? Because I just, is that his goal? It's just to prevent him from being with the mom as much as he can.

This hasn't been brought up, but, and obviously I'm not a legal expert, but I'm wondering if this is a way to gain child. child support from her. Because that hasn't been discussed yet about like what's happening with that. How does that work if you, you were never married? That's why I'm wondering. You got to go through the court system, I think.

Yeah. Okay. Because I'm not familiar with cases and child support when they were never married. That's what I said. We got to get the legal expert back on because we got to ask about that because I'm, I'm confused too. Like, what is his end goal? Is his end goal in, in what her?

you know, perception is of this case and her legal background, is he trying to gain more custody so then there can be some sort of child support situation that is then made final? I don't know. So we'll have to figure this out. But I now still am standing firmly on, uh, we are not going to see that season. Never. Never. You can, you cannot air this. this season with your lead in the midst of the eye of the storm like this. And second of all, expressing that she's mentally needing to make sure she's around experts

because she's in a state that she doesn't know what could possibly happen, positive or negative. It's now at a place where morally it would look really bad for the show if they were to attempt to put this. out and make her go do press and face scrutiny. Like it would be wildly irresponsible of them to do something like that to her. She needs to be focused on this and she is focused.

She is very focused on her children and that aspect of her life. And I think that she is making the right steps. I really do. I just think that adding a television show, on top of that is not what she needs right now. Not at all. There's no way. And it's unreal because like three weeks ago we were saying such opposite things.

We're like, it could happen. It could happen. Oh, I apologize for saying that. Now I feel wrong. I mean, I think that we all thought it was turning in a positive way. The Tate thing, really, the Tate thing. This is why any pending legal stuff is always really. tricky for anybody to ever get on a television show, and I've never gotten anybody on TV with pending

legal issues, because it can't, things can flip on a dime and you, things can change where it looks like it's going positively and then it turns negatively. And it's like they just, people, networks don't usually want to take the risk in any sort of pending litigation, which is why it tends to be a no. So that's why I was like, if this kid stuff had gotten resolved by now and yesterday had kind of like been like the end of it, I think that there still could have been a chance. But yeah, once this Tate stuff got brought up, I really think that we we doubled back on can't do it. Can't do it. All right, guys. Well, Heather and I are going to record a headlines episode that doesn't have to do with Taylor Freaky Paul.

Well, actually, she's going to make her way in there a little bit. A little bit. Until next time, until you hear that, I've been Ashley. I've been Heather. Bye. Bye. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, I, almost famous podcast on IHeartRadio,

or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. What's up, fam, it's sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the hosts of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from together. We're breaking down the biggest headlines, the viral moments, and the stories everyone's talking about

across women's sports. From game-changing performances to culture-shifting conversations, we'll give you our takes, our debates, and a few laughs along the way. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the I-Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. When Democrats are messing up, I say it.

When Republicans are messing up, I say it. I'm S.E. Cup, a journalist and political commentator. And on my podcast, Off the Cup, I help you make sense of the often nonsensical news. I do this on cable news too, but on my podcast, I can really let loose and be my honest, unfiltered self. I just want to talk about something that happened this week because it's so bonkers, so stupid. Such incredibly bad politics, we have to talk about it. Come for the hot takes, stay for the sanity. Listen to Off the Cup on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The World Cup is underway and it's been incredible. On our podcast, the O.A.N. with Danielle Alarcon and John Green, we're talking talking about the games that have delighted us, the teams that have inspired us, what we're loving and what surprised us, all through the lens of being massive fans of the world's most beautiful game. Daniel, this tournament has been magical so far. There's so much to love, and I can hardly believe the drama that the group stage brought us. And now it's time for us to talk about the teams that are left as the field is whittled down

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