Lisa Vanderpump doesn’t think that Vanderpump Villa will be missing out on much with Dakota Mortensen being edited out from the show’s upcoming season.
The former Beverly Hills Housewife told People on Friday after the news was revealed that Mortensen “didn’t really have a big storyline” on the series and that him being cut from the episodes “hasn’t affected the story.”
“We don’t want to shine a spotlight on something that’s been so controversial when we have so much great content,” Vanderpump said. “Our show’s ready to go. Obviously, we don’t want to do anything extraordinarily significant at this stage in the game, but it’s ready to go.”
Mortensen is not a full-time cast member on Vanderpump Villa, but he was slated to be featured as a guest alongside the men of “DadTok,” aka the husbands and exes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast. It is unclear how many episodes their trip will span, though Mortensen’s time on Vanderpump Villa was quite the talking point on the fourth season of Mormon Wives.
He allegedly hooked up with a staffer while on the luxury trip, which caused a massive blowup with his ex Taylor Frankie Paul. Elsewhere, Jordan Ngatikaura will cross paths with Marciano Brunette, whom his wife Jessi Draper had an affair with. Mortensen’s time on Vanderpump Villa was teased to be a prominent storyline during Mormon Wives season four. His time on the trip became a plot point on the latter series due to Paul’s reaction to learning of his alleged relations.
Vanderpump, however, said that Mortensen had a “brief storyline of an interaction with somebody else, and we just scaled that back because of the controversy.”
“We’ve got so much ‘feel good factor’ and so much story content anyway,” she added. “The visuals are beautiful, the stories are complicated. There’s a lot of humor in it, there’s a lot of funny, sexy time and it’s a great show. It’s great entertainment.”
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Friday that Mortensen was being edited out of season three amid an ongoing domestic violence investigation with his former partner and Mormon Wives star Paul. Before he was cut, Vanderpump Villa and Alex Cooper’s new YouTube reality show faced backlash for Mortensen’s castings and decisions to not cut him from content, as ABC did in pulling Paul’s season of The Bachelorette.
Season 22 of the veteran reality dating show was pulled following the leak of a video depicting the domestic violence incident that led to her 2023 arrest involving Mortensen.
On Monday, March 16, it was reported that season five of Mormon Wives paused filming amid an alleged February domestic incident between Paul and Mortensen. A spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department told People that there is an open “domestic assault investigation” involving Paul and Mortensen. They noted that “allegations have been made in both directions” and “contact was made with involved parties on [Feb.] 24th and 25th.”
A few days later, on Thursday, March 19, video of the events leading up to Paul’s prior 2023 arrest was leaked, showing the reality star throwing barstools at Mortensen while her daughter was present. Hours later, ABC pulled season 22 of The Bachelorette, three days before its scheduled March 22 premiere.
One day later, on Friday, March 20, NBC News obtained audio of a Zoom call held on March 7 with the Mormon Wives cast and three Disney executives, where they voiced concerns about continuing the series with Paul amid the investigation.
The production company on Mormon Wives, Jeff Jenkins Productions in association with 3BMG and Walt Disney Television Alternative, launched their own investigation separate from the police, which is ongoing. THR previously reported that production on season five will remain halted until production’s investigation concludes. There is also a reported third alleged domestic violence incident that is currently under investigation, also involving Paul and Mortensen.
