SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Taylor Frankie Paul, a star of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” cannot spend unsupervised time with her 2-year-old son due to a history of volatile behavior directed at the boy’s father while kids were present, a Utah court commissioner ruled Tuesday.
Third District Court Commissioner Russell Minas said, “I have concerns going both ways” about competing allegations between Dakota Mortensen and Paul, who was also set to star in the most recent season of “The Bachelorette” before it was pulled days before airing.
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Commissioner Russell Minas talks to council during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Commissioner Russell Minas listens as attorney Eric Swinyard speaks during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court, in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Attorneys Ryan Ficklin and Eric Swinyard listen as Daniela Diaz speaks during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Attorney Daniela Diaz makes a comment during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
“Even if he was trying to provoke a response," Minas said, "the actions that occurred are very troubling.”
The hearing set the stage for an April 30 court battle in which Minas will assess dueling petitions for protective orders between the pair.
Mortensen, who shares son Ever with Paul, has asked the court to turn a short-term protective order against his ex into a long-term one. Paul filed her own request just before Tuesday's hearing. Both participated remotely while their lawyers were in court.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.
Lawyers for the two sides and a court-appointed attorney for Ever addressed several heated and sometimes violent interactions between the couple, some of which were caught on video.
In one key video from 2023, Paul appeared to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her young daughter watched and cried. The leak of that video last month spurred the unprecedented move by ABC of shelving Paul's already-filmed season of “The Bachelorette.”
Paul was charged for that altercation with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge, and the other counts were dismissed.
Eric Swinyard, a lawyer for Paul, argued Tuesday that Mortensen was the aggressor in another fight from February that the lawyer called “the truck tussle.”
In his request for a protective order, Mortensen said Paul threw a drink at him as they argued in a truck to not wake children who were sleeping inside Paul's home. Swinyard said Mortensen slammed Paul's head into the dashboard and punched her in the leg, showing the court commissioner photos of her bruises.
That and another fight around the same time are under investigation by police in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper City.
The sides generally agreed that Paul didn't intentionally direct violence at their son or her other two children from a previous relationship. At issue was her willingness to lash out at Mortensen in front of her children.
Ever's court-appointed lawyer pointed to a May 2025 video that has not been released publicly. He said it shows Paul pushing Mortensen and shouting at him to get out of her house while he's holding the boy.
"To me, that makes me very nervous about her ability to control herself, and her volatility," said the lawyer, Michael McDonald. He said Paul has “a very difficult time with self-control, and I think that it puts my client at risk.”
Paul's attorney said Mortensen deliberately created that situation.
“He’s holding the child as his human shield, so to speak, and provoking my client and not getting out of her house," Swinyard said.
Daniela Diaz, a lawyer for Mortensen, argued that Paul uses their shared child to perpetuate a cycle of abuse that keeps Mortensen coming back.
“He’s often invited back, and his child is often used as a pawn, as a pawn to start fights,” Diaz said.
Minas ordered that Paul can have eight hours per week of supervised visits with Ever, emphasizing it was a stopgap arrangement until the next hearing. Paul had primary custody of the boy before Mortensen got the temporary protective order.
The couple's 2023 fight, one of 11 cited in court filings, was central to the first season of Hulu's “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which made Paul a reality star. The series premiere featured police body camera footage of her arrest.
Production has been paused on the show's fifth season. Paul’s co-star Mikayla Matthews said the cast “didn’t feel comfortable filming with everything that was happening.”
Paul rose to popularity as an influencer in the #MomTok community, a group of women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who share their lives on TikTok. The group, and Paul's admissions of polyamory within it, helped spawn the hit reality show.
On Easter Sunday, Paul announced she was leaving what is widely known as the Mormon church. She said on Instagram, “It's time to detach myself.”
Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
Commissioner Russell Minas talks to council during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Commissioner Russell Minas listens as attorney Eric Swinyard speaks during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court, in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Attorneys Ryan Ficklin and Eric Swinyard listen as Daniela Diaz speaks during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Attorney Daniela Diaz makes a comment during a hearing on a protective order sought by a former partner against Taylor Frankie Paul, in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s pulling back on his threats to widen attacks in Iran to include an array of bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Iran agreeing to a two week ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
In a post on his social media site Tuesday evening, Trump said Iran could agree “to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz” and said that he’d then “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.”
Since the war began in February, Trump has set a series of deadlines threatening escalation of the conflict, only to back off just before they expire.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline to strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while the Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets.
Trump’s expansive threat did not seem to account for potential harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.
Tehran’s representative at the U.N., Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats “constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide” and that Iran would "take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures” if Trump launches devastating strikes.
The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with attacks targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. Iran has responded with a stream of strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors, causing regional chaos and outsized economic and political shock.
As Trump’s deadline neared, an official said indirect talks continued between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan's prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. In a post on X, Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been leading negotiations, also asked Iran to open up for two weeks the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits in peacetime. The White House said Trump had been informed of the proposal and would respond.
Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island, a key hub for Iranian oil production.
Since the war began, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the president insisted this one is final and will expire at 8 p.m. in Washington unless there is a major diplomatic breakthrough. Tehran previously rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal by Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.
Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. That's despite Trump saying that U.S. forces could wipe out all bridges in Iran in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.
It was not clear if airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday were linked to Trump’s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.
Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.
While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait since the war began in late February is roiling the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if a deal isn’t reached, Trump said in an online post Tuesday morning. But he also seemed to keep open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”
Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.
Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. State media posted videos online that showed hundreds of flag-waving people massed at two bridges and at a power plant hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.
“They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.
A general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard general warned that Iran would “deprive the U.S. and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.
In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran's Islamic system had hoped Trump's attacks would quickly topple it. As the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli strikes will spread chaos.
“If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,” she told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity for her safety.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday that the threats were “truly unacceptable” and that such attacks would violate international law.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Trump has said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the threats, saying no military objective justified targeting civilian infrastructure.
Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighborhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iranian government and security officials.
The Israeli military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility. The military later said it also struck bridges in several cities that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes on Kharg Island as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran. Iran also fired on Israel.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed. and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; Farnoush Amiri at The United Nations; and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price, Joshua Boak and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
A girl stands next to replica of a space craft in a memorial for school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People wave Iranian flags and chant slogans in a memorial for school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Damavand power station is seen from a nearby road on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Bystanders try to comfort and assist a woman as she reacts near the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Relatives react next to the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
An excavator removes rubble at the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man takes a selfie while taking cover with three others along a highway as air raid sirens warn of an incoming Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Bystanders watch from a distance as rescue teams and first responders work at the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A first responder leaves the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People drive their motorbikes past a billboard that shows a graphic depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Displaced people wait to receive donated food beside the tents they use as shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man inspects the damage to cars and an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
