There is a particular kind of heartbreak that comes when a mother watches her daughter make choices she does not recognize, and Liann May did not try to hide that pain after seeing Taylor Frankie Paul on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 5. In a candid TikTok video earlier this week, Liann admitted that she thought it was the hardest season to watch as a parent. “I think that this season was the worst season that I have watched you,” she said. “It wasn’t like watching you.” Her voice carried something deeper than criticism: there was confusion, disappointment, and the quiet ache of a mom who feels like she is losing sight of the child she raised. “It just seems like season after season, you’ve gotten away from who you are as a person, and so that was heavy to watch, and it has been not fun to watch, especially as not just the audience, but as your mother.” She did not sugarcoat her reaction, adding, “I thought the season was ew, ew, ew.” The five-episode fifth season dropped on Hulu on September 10, and it followed Taylor through one of the messiest chapters of her life so far. She had just returned from filming The Bachelorette, and instead of settling into stability with her then-fiancé Doug Mason, she ended up sleeping with her ex, Dakota Mortensen. On top of that, she rekindled some kind of connection with another former flame, Ben Lambert, and by the end of the season, she was in an explosive argument with Mikayla Matthews and Mayci Neeley. For most viewers, it was entertainment. For Liann, it was watching her daughter drift further and further from the woman she knew, and she was not afraid to say so.
Liann’s specific concerns went beyond the general messiness of reality TV. She got into the uncomfortable details that made her cringe as a mother and as a grandmother. “I did not like the way that you and D-bag talk to each other,” she said, seemingly referring to Dakota Mortensen. “It was gross and I hope that my grandkids never, never get to see that.” There is something particularly painful about hearing a mother say she does not want her grandchildren to watch their own parents interact, but Liann did not stop there. She also brought up the now-infamous bath scene with Ben Lambert, which she described as “so disgusting.” She was quick to clarify that her disgust was not just about Taylor drinking from the faucet, though she made a small joke about that being gross too because of New York water. The real issue, for Liann, was what that scene represented. “But just having him there and you getting validation from these men,” she said. “I know that you’re hurting, but it just wasn’t right.” Those words cut straight to the heart of what bothered her most. She was not just upset about bad behavior or scandalous television; she was worried about her daughter’s emotional state. She saw Taylor seeking worth and comfort through male attention, and it hurt her to watch. As a mother, Liann could see the pain underneath the decisions. She could see a woman who was hurting and trying to fill some empty space with the wrong kinds of validation. That is why her critique felt less like judgment and more like grief. She wants her daughter to be okay, but she knows that the path Taylor has been on is not leading there.
Still, amid all those sharp and painful words, Liann made it clear that she has not given up on Taylor. She expressed hope that Taylor can continue the progress she has already been making, and she asked a simple thing: “I hope that you are a completely different person on season 6 if you decide that you want to do that.” That is not the language of someone who has written off her daughter. It is the language of someone who believes in redemption, growth, and second chances. Liann also opened her heart about Taylor’s relationships with her friends in MomTok. She reminded Taylor of the kindness and love that she knows exist inside her, saying, “You are kind and you are loving. It’s hard to watch you be so mad at your friends.” There is a mother’s instinct in that statement: the urge to remind a child of who she really is when the world has made her forget. Liann said she would love to see “a new and improved Taylor Frankie Paul” in the next season. She also expressed a deep hope that the women of MomTok could find their way back to each other. “I would love to see MomTok and all the girls coming together and cultivating those relationships that you once had,” she said. “I hope that you girls can all become friends again.” It was a beautiful, almost hopeful vision coming from someone who had just spent the video talking about how hard the season was to watch. Liann is not asking Taylor to be perfect. She is asking her to be real, to be kind, to be the woman she knows her daughter can be. She wants the friendships and the warmth back, not just for the show but for Taylor’s own soul.
The stakes behind Liann’s words feel even heavier when you remember what was happening behind the scenes. Production on season 5 was paused earlier this year after news broke of an alleged domestic dispute between Taylor, 32, and Dakota, 33, who share a son named Ever. That is not the kind of thing that can just be edited into a dramatic storyline. It is real life, with real consequences, and there are children in the middle of it. Taylor is currently involved in custody disputes with both Dakota and her ex-husband, Tate Paul, with whom she shares daughter Indy, 9, and son Ocean, 6. That means the chaos of the season is not just a professional hurdle or a public relations problem; it is tangled up in courtrooms, family dynamics, and the everyday lives of young kids who did not ask for any of this. Liann’s comment about hoping her grandchildren never have to see the way Taylor and Dakota talk to each other takes on a heavier meaning when you know that those grandchildren may one day be old enough to search for their parents online. They will find these episodes, these articles, these TikTok videos. They will see the arguments and the allegations, and they will have to reconcile that with their own memories of their parents. That is the part of reality TV that is easy to forget when you are just watching for drama. But Liann has not forgotten. She is not just a fan reacting to a show; she is a grandmother thinking about what her grandchildren will see when they grow up. And Mikayla Matthews would later say something very similar in her own departure from the series.
Earlier this week, Mikayla, 26, announced her exit from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives after learning that Taylor would be filming for the upcoming sixth season. Her announcement was not made lightly. She took to Instagram on Monday, September 14, and explained that she had said from the beginning that she was not comfortable being part of something that continues to platform behavior she does not agree with, especially given her own experience growing up in a home with multiple forms of abuse. “There’s no amount of money worth going against my morals or changing the stance I’ve had since I first saw and heard the things that made me feel this strongly,” she wrote. The next day, she reiterated her reasons in a follow-up post, making it even clearer that the decision was about something bigger than reality TV. “The only reason I’m leaving the show is because I was told a certain person was coming back … because it’s unethical and kids are involved,” she said. “I’m being put in an unfair position because of the things I’ve seen and heard that I don’t agree with. I filmed [season] 6 ‘cause that person was not there. Then we were told she was coming back.” Though Mikayla did not name Taylor directly in those posts, the context was widely understood. Her decision was a moral boundary, rooted in her own painful history with abuse. She was not just refusing to work with someone; she was refusing to be part of a machine that she believed would continue to platform harmful behavior, and she felt that the show’s decision to bring that person back put her in an impossible position. Her words were striking because they were so different from the usual reality show exits. There was no dramatic shouting, no long list of grievances about editing or contracts. There was only a quiet, firm line being drawn. Mikayla is someone who grew up in an environment that she believes shaped her sensitivity to abuse, and she decided that no paycheck was worth crossing that line. It is a reminder that for some cast members, these choices are not just about fame or drama. They are about survival, integrity, and protecting children.
In the end, all of this has become a much larger conversation about what happens when real people’s lives become content. Liann May’s video was a mother’s plea, not a publicist’s statement. She was honest about the parts she hated, but she also made it clear that she loves her daughter and wants her to heal. She wants Taylor to be a completely different person on season 6, not because she wants better television, but because she wants a better life for her child. She wants Taylor to be kind to her friends, to stop seeking validation from men who do not deserve her energy, and to remember that her mother is watching and praying. Meanwhile, Mikayla Matthews has walked away from a show and a paycheck because she says she cannot in good conscience keep platforming someone whose behavior she finds harmful. Those two perspectives are not the same thing, but they both come from a place of care: care for the people involved, care for the children in the middle of it all, and care for the truth that this is not just entertainment. Reality TV depends on conflict, but it sometimes forgets that the people in the middle of the conflict are human beings with mothers, children, trauma, and hopes. Liann’s maternal honesty and Mikayla’s moral boundary are both reminders that the cameras do not capture everything, and the people we watch on screen are carrying weight that we will never fully understand. As the show moves toward season 6, the question is not just who will be cast and who will leave. The question is whether Taylor Frankie Paul can actually become the new and improved version of herself that her mother believes in, whether MomTok can repair its broken friendships, and whether the people making decisions behind the scenes will remember that there are real children who will one day look back on all of this. Liann ended her message with hope, not condemnation. She reminded everyone that Taylor is kind and loving, even when the show makes it hard to see that. And maybe that is the most human thing of all: being able to hold disappointment and hope at the same time, wanting the best for someone even when they have made a mess of things, and never quite giving up on the person you know they can still become.
