Whitney Leavitt is finally breaking her silence on Taylor Frankie Paul's domestic violence scandal, a week after a video from Taylor's 2023 dispute with ex-partner Dakota Mortensen was released. In an interview with Interview magazine, Whitney spoke out against physical abuse, emphasizing the importance of human safety, especially for children.
"I have a lot of emotions about it and I'm still processing everything that's happening," the 32-year-old said. "But the safety of human beings, especially children, comes first. Always. Period. The end."
Whitney, who shares three children with her husband Conner Leavitt—Sedona, 6, Liam, 4, and Billy Gene, 17 months—added, "I don't want that to be tolerated. I don't want that to be overlooked. It's just so fresh. That's all I have to say about that."
The alarming video, recorded by Dakota and released by TMZ on March 19, showed Taylor yelling and attempting to hit her then-boyfriend while their daughter was in the room. At one point, she even threw a bar stool at Dakota, who told Taylor, "Your daughter is right here."
Hours after the clip's release, ABC canceled the March 22 premiere of Taylor's Bachelorette season. The cancellation came days after filming for season five of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives had been paused following a separate alleged confrontation between Taylor and Dakota, which the Draper Police Department confirmed they were investigating.
The controversy between the pair—who dated on and off from 2022 to 2025—has only gotten worse. Dakota, 33, has filed for a restraining order against Taylor, 31, and has been awarded temporary custody of their 2-year-old son. Police are also investigating a third alleged domestic violence incident between Taylor and Dakota from 2024.
The scandal has rocked the entertainment world and those closest to Taylor. Many of her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives costars have since denounced her actions.
"My personal history as a survivor makes it impossible for me to stay silent," Layla Taylor wrote in a March 20 Instagram Story. "I stand firmly against domestic violence in any form. I keep her children in my thoughts, hoping for their safety above all else."
Miranda Hope also emphasized her shock as the situation came to light. "Everything has been really tough to see," the 27-year-old wrote in her own Instagram Story that day. "Domestic violence and abuse of any kind is something I take very seriously. As a human, and especially as a mother, I cannot support that kind of behavior."
Most recently, Jessi Draper addressed the situation, insisting that Taylor is "a good person" who "made some mistakes."
"Seeing that video is so hard," she said on the March 25 episode of Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast. "There's so much pain underneath the surface for Taylor. And I tell her this all the time, it's not who Taylor is. She got caught in a really bad cycle and just seeing that video—yes, the child being involved is awful—and everyone involved, is really hard."
"I'm not saying any of it is right," the 33-year-old continued. "But I know Taylor as a person and it's so easy to speculate about people on a reality show like we're characters, we're not real people, but this is our real lives and I've seen Taylor in her darkest moments, holding her crying...and I want this to maybe be a wake-up call for them."
