Taylor Frankie Paul‘s baby daddy, Dakota Mortensen, detailed the skeletons he faced – including a heroin addiction – before moving to Utah and meeting Taylor and filming The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
TSLOMW personality was a guest on The Viall Files podcast and addressed his life pre-Taylor and their current relationship status.
CONTENT WARNING!
How it started:
“For me, it started out when I was in high school. I was a big basketball player. I remember I was at a practice once and my knees were hurting super bad.”
Dakota continued, “I was in the gym and a kid was in there and he was like, ‘Oh dude, I have some pain pills, you want some?’”
He took the unprescribed medication and spiraled. “I remember I had zero pain. It was the best thing in the world.” From there, Taylor’s ex started using opiods, which led to heroin and fentanyl use.”
Dakota got sober when he moved to Utah. He was sober for four years.
The downward spiral:
“I was pouring handfuls of these pills in my pocket. Then that same friend was like, ‘I also hear that if you snort them, they work better.’ And from there it just progressed really fast.”
“Then some of the drug addict friends of mine bumped [me] to Oxycodone. …I had a buddy that eventually told me you could smoke them off of tin foil. That changed everything. It got to a point where they were selling them [to me] for $50 a pill. It’s a lot of money.”
“It really was a blessing with my family because they caught me with pills really early on as well. So they knew almost from the start that, like, I was starting to dabble with some of these things.”
Next stop, H Town:
“From there I went to heroin because then Oxycodone was so expensive. Heroin was a little cheaper and had similar highs. So you just transfer. “What’s crazy is that the first time that I got heroin, I remember the people that I got from were shooting up. Watching that was so scary to me.”
“I remember when I saw that I told myself, ‘If I ever shoot up, I’m gone.’ Like, I just knew that was the thing,” he continued. “I’ve heard when you go to needles, it’s 10 times harder to quit. So I always made that promise to myself to where I was like, ‘I’m never going to shoot up.’”
Dakota married his first wife and hit rock bottom:
During his “year and a half” long marriage, he was “abusing drugs.” He made attempts to get clean in rehab, but it was never successful for long.
“I remember there was this point where I was going to kill myself. I bought, like, a gram of heroin. I was just like, ‘I’m gonna just shoot up and I’m gonna just try to kill myself.’ This is where I was so sick of this life. I don’t know how to stop.”
He went ‘cold turkey’, but started using Fentanyl.
Dakota was clean for six months and met Taylor.
Taylor and Dakota’s current status:
Anyone who has seen TSLOMW knows how rocky Ever’s parents’ relationship is.
Dakota confirmed that something happened between him and Taylor that they are working through, but wouldn’t go into specifics. Currently, season 3 is filming, so we may see the drama play out!
He explained he was taking it day by day as they try to coparent. Dakota remains hopeful he Taylor could potentially reconcile their relationship.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
