It’s a swing and a miss.
Mormon influencer Taylor Frankie Paul, popular on a side of TikTok dubbed “MomTok”, has revealed that she and her husband were “soft swinging” with their fellow Utah couples in the latest social media drama.
The religious influencer’s 3.5 million followers were already enthralled with their unorthodox Mormon marriage, but a recent scandal has gained traction with TikTok bystanders who once only had MomTok in their peripheral. Now, tens of millions of users are buzzing.
Paul, 28, cited the swinging behaviors as a reason she and her husband, Tate Paul, are getting divorced.
“The whole group was intimate with each other,” Paul revealed on a TikTok livestream. “Tate has made out with several girls and other things, and I’ve made out with all of the husbands and vice versa.”
In the livestream, which was recorded by fans invested in the debacle, she also explained how the group of MomTokers and their significant others got involved in “swinging” and “soft swinging.”
Swinging entails consensual non-monogamy between multiple partners, but Paul’s group reportedly participated in so-called “soft swinging,” which meant not going “too far,” according to Paul.
She’s previously admitted to actually “going all the way” with one person in the friend group without approval from either spouse, which was supposedly against the rules. Yet, after revealing her, and the other’s secret, she said she felt “free.”
“I feel free, to be honest,” she continued during the livestream, acknowledging that the cat’s out of the bag. “It was a secret that we had been keeping from family and other friends,” she added, including notably, her parents.
“All my dirty secrets are out and I have nothing to hide anymore,” she stated. “We partied, we were intimate with other people.”
The rumor mill began churning when millions tuned in to Paul’s TikTok on May 20, to watch a cryptic video that suggested she’d soon be a single parent.
“My entire life falling apart,” read text over a video in which the soon-to-be divorcee is seen packing moving boxes. “And I can’t even speak on why … without bringing them all down with me,” she added to the footage.
In a follow-up clip posted on the same day, Paul swings a set of keys at the camera amid an empty home. “In my twenties, getting divorced, started therapy, living on my own for the first time ever along with two kids,” she wrote, fetching 11.6 million views from MomTok’s rapt followers.
At the time, some fans speculated that the couple was simply moving, but those who suspected trouble in the Pauls’ polyamorous paradise were soon validated with Taylor’s now-infamous livestream.
“I have no idea who any of these people are,” commented one user on a clip created by Hannah Kosh, a pop culture gossip account. “But please, keep me updated.”
“This drama has made me realize how nosy I truly am,” wrote another.
Along with internet gossip accounts recapping the social media spectacle, a Reddit thread following the drama has more than 17,000 members, while other TikTokers are commenting on it, filling in anyone who will listen. One content creator, Kat Wellington, shared a clip explaining the “Utah mom drama” to her boyfriend captioned, “What else would we talk about.”
Meanwhile, some members of the MomTok community are distancing themselves from the Pauls’ unholy escapades, by making their own statements in an attempt to clear their names.
One couple, Miranda and Chase McWhorter, went live on TikTok again, recorded by the drama devotees saying they didn’t take any part in the “swinging.” One member of MomTok, @jazlynebaybee, implored the McWhorters to divulge in the live comments thread.
“Tbh, I’m not sure,” they later responded in a TikTok video with over 872,000 views, that shows the couple dancing, then falling to the floor in laughter. “But apparently we’re swingers now.”
Despite any negative online attention, Paul, who has a daughter, Indy, and son, Ocean, with her ex, is happy to be generating buzz from the spectacle, and owning her “villain” status.
Yet, in an Instagram Story posted Wednesday, she wrote how thankful she was for familial support and “everyone else checking in without judgement.”
While she said she’s “overwhelmed,” she noted some bad news for MomTok enthusiasts: “I will not be sharing anything else from here on out.”
Who the hell cares?
W.T.F. is SOFT swinging ?
I don’t even want to be in the same galaxy when she and all who engage in this behavior have to stand before God and try to justify her behavior; the reverberations will be felt throughout the universe. Good Grief!!!! Repent while you still can. Have a good day.
They both look like they are full of botox and had multiple face lifts. They are plum freaky looking.