Dakota Mortensen filed a lawsuit in November 2026 against Hulu and production companies over his portrayal on the reality television series Secret Lives.
The 33-year-old reality star and ex-boyfriend of former star Taylor Frankie Paul filed the legal action against Hulu, Ludwig Productions, and Jeff Jenkins Productions, as reported by TMZ. According to Just Jared, he is seeking damages in excess of $300,000. TMZ said that his lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $300K for stress, humiliation, ruined reputation, and lost business deals.
Mortensen has been a regular on the reality series since it first aired in 2023, according to AOL. In the court documents, he claims the show’s third, fourth, and fifth seasons manufactured storylines from staged events and deleted contradictory footage.
presented Mortensen to millions of viewers as a domestic abuser, as a man who retaliated against the mother of his child by reporting her to Child Protective Services, and as a serial adulterer.
Dakota Mortensen, Reality TV series regular
The lawsuit alleges that producers assembled the broadcast to deceive the audience after being informed by Mortensen and others that the allegations were false. Mortensen states that he never made a call to Child Protective Services against Paul, despite the show depicting him as doing so in retaliation, as noted by TMZ.
The knowingly false portrayal of Mortensen as the abuser in the relationship continueduninterrupted, while the only footage of physical aggression between the two, aggression by Paul against Mortensen, was intentionally withheld from viewers to promote a false narrative.
Dakota Mortensen, Reality TV series regular
Mortensen points to an incident captured by cameras during season five where Paul struck him with a pizza box, which he claims producers cut from the broadcast. Regarding a plot point in season three involving an alleged relationship with a family friend, Mortensen states that “no such relationship existed,” adding that the individual wrote a denying letter that never aired.