The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mikayla Matthews has a lot more to say about Taylor Frankie Paul calling her out as a “snake friend.”
“Could probably write a book on everything I’ve had to say on this. Nothing I said denied that she’s experienced pain, trauma, or difficult things, there’s literally no question about that,” Matthews, 26, wrote in the comments section of a fan video discussing the drama between her and Paul, which was shared via Instagram on Sunday, May 10. “Two things can be true. Someone can be hurting and still hurt people around them in the process.”
Matthews added that she “never” wanted to see Paul “fail, suffer, or be canceled.”
“It was about no longer wanting to publicly participate in or normalize a cycle that was affecting everyone around it, especially where children and repeated violence were involved,” she responded.
Matthews also called Paul out for claiming that someone had been a bad friend to her.
“What also won’t fly with me is the bad friends and snake friends narrative. Especially when so many of us spent years putting genuine care, time, energy, and emotional labor into trying to support her through incredibly toxic situations,” she wrote. “Like the weeks that we took away from our newborn stage, not even months postpartum, but weeks postpartum To check in on her and support her journey going on The Bachelorette, even though we knew she wasn’t taking it seriously and she wasn’t ready to go on it.”
Matthews also pointed out that she’s been battling her own issues recently, as she confirmed her separation from husband Jace Terry during season 4 of Mormon Wives earlier this year. She subsequently relocated to Hawaii to treat her ongoing chronic illness battle. (She and Terry, 30, share four kids.)
, “To take years out of our lives, time away from our families, from our own mental sanity, from our own healing, from many of our own ‘Mother’s Day’ moments, to put a friend and their trauma first out of genuine friendship and care, just to have it diminished and shat on while it gets chalked up to an attitude of ‘I can do what I want and say whatever I want’ while it is hurting people around them is toxic and destructive behavior,” Matthews argued. “Compassion cannot only exist when it benefits one person.”
While Matthews and Paul are not in the best place at this moment, she clarified that she still wishes her former friend the best.
“I have not once attacked her character or tried to tear her down the way everyone so badly want people to believe I have,” she explained. “If anything, I’ve consistently acknowledged that she loves her kids and that she has a good heart and I want nothing more than for her to be happy and healed.”
The Mormon Wives costars have been going back and forth since earlier this month when fans accused Matthews of not being supportive of Paul and costar Jessi Draper during their difficult times.
Paul has been dealing with multiple legal issues over the past few years stemming from domestic disputes with her ex Dakota Mortensen. The exes were both granted protective orders against each other by a judge last month and Paul currently does not have custody of the pair’s 2-year-old son, Ever. Draper, for her part, is in the middle of a divorce with her estranged husband, Jordan Ngatikaura. Ngatikaura, 31, filed for divorce from Draper in March. (Paul is also mom to daughter Indy and son Ocean, whom she shares with ex-husband Tate Paul. Draper and Ngatikaura share kids Jagger and Jovi.)
While Paul and Draper have continued to make headlines over their ups and downs, Matthews addressed claims she hasn’t been asupportive costar or friend on Saturday, May 9.
“I have felt absolutely sick to my stomach and horrible for what everyone involved must be feeling and going through,” Matthews wrote via Instagram while defending herself. “However, it is not my job to enable poor or dangerous behavior from either party, especially when children are involved. That doesn’t mean I don’t love them or want the best for their individual futures. It just means I cannot sit here and pretend it’s OK that years of destructive behavior are now being discussed more than ever online and turned into a ‘pick a side’ game.”
The following day, Paul entered the chat by calling Matthews a “snake friend” on social media.
“It’s Mother’s Day so I’ll say whatever I want. As if it’s not already the worst time. I have [sic] STILL have ‘friends’ kicking me while I’m already down and calling it ‘setting a boundary’ and then BLAMES ME for being upset and responding,” she wrote via Instagram on Sunday. “That’s called shaming and attack while I had a moment to breathe and she knew that.”
Paul continued, “Not once have [I] called myself a ‘victim’ but I’m HUMAN and have breaking points. What a snake friend just did to me in the public eye after everything she just witnessed … the lack of empathy and silence was loud enough.”
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