Dakota Mortensen has broken his silence on the casting of his ex, Taylor Frankie Paul, as the next lead of The Bachelorette. Mortensen and Paul share a child, but their relationship was anything but stable. The casting of Paul was already controversial, considering the reality TV personality’s arrest record and domestic violence history. Now, Mortensen is revealing another reason Paul should have been disqualified from contention; he suggests they’ve been hooking up pretty often. The Bachelorette and The Bachelor have eligibility requirements for both the competitors and the lead. Paul passes none of it, according to Mortensen.

Taylor Frankie Paul wouldn’t have passed ‘The Bachelorette’ vetting process

Taylor Frankie Paul’s appointment as the next bachelorette hasn’t been met with universal enthusiasm. Sure, some fans are excited to see a dramatic season of The Bachelorette, which Paul can certainly deliver. Still, others have pointed out that Paul has been given special treatment simply because she’s a reality TV star. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives would have been deemed ineligible for the franchise pretty quickly if she had been a regular person off the street.

According to the eligibility requirements associated with The Bachelorette, contestants and leads must not have been convicted of a felony within the past 10 years. Paul was convicted of felony aggravated assault for a domestic violence incident with her then-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. The incident took place just two years ago. The conviction was part of a plea deal, in which the state dropped several other charges associated with the arrest.

Contestants and leads are also considered ineligible if they have had a restraining order in place at any point. That clause is a bit more fluid, though. Producers have been known to make exceptions, as was the case with Guy Gansert. Taylor Frankie Paul also had a temporary restraining order taken out against her by Mortensen. The order stemmed from the same incident as her conviction.

The violent past, though Paul has tried to explain it away, and some fans sympathize, is enough to turn many fans off to the season. After all, technically, she should have been deemed ineligible. Mortensen insists there is at least one other red flag to consider. He has made claims that perhaps she wasn’t free and clear when she signed up. The show does have a relationship status requirement.

Allegedly, she wouldn’t pass the relationship eligibility requirements for ‘The Bachelorette’ either

Taylor Frankie Paul’s history of domestic violence and her felony conviction are clearly her biggest red flags. Still, Dakota Mortensen, who was at the center of Paul’s domestic violence case, suggests she might have another red flag. In fact, based on what he’s had to say in social media comments, Paul probably wouldn’t have passed the casting sniff test regarding her relationship status, either.

Aside from having a clean criminal record, the open casting call requires that all applicants be single when submitting their application. Mortensen suggests that he and Paul were hooking up fairly recently, as indicated in some of his social media comments. While it seems Paul saw herself as single, we aren’t entirely convinced she had told Mortensen that.

By her own admission, she and Mortensen had hooked up fairly recently. She claimed the last time they were intimate was at Stagecoach, which was held in April. He seems to subtly contradict that statement in a comment left on a post about her episode of Call Her Daddy. According to People, he seems to suggest it may have been much more recent than that. While he doesn’t state that they were together before the casting, some fans are reading between the lines.