How Taylor Frankie Pauls scandal may tank two TV…
Taylor Frankie Paul was set to break through to the next stage of fame with her run as “The Bachelorette.”
But it all got here crashing down after video surfaced of her hurling chairs at her associate, Dakota Mortensen, one of which hit her five-year-old daughter, Indy, who might be heard crying in a clip obtained by GWN.
ABC pulled the plug on the show, which was set to premiere March 22, in its entirety on Thursday.
ABC rapidly determined to cancel the season after the 2023 video was launched. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” the community told Page Six.
The episode has quickly turn out to be a cautionary story for networks chasing scores.
It’s not just like the warning indicators to producers weren’t there: The incident occurred in 2023 and, since then, the ever-volatile Paul pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault.
The show which catapulted Paul into residing rooms, Hulu’s “Secret Lives of Mormon Lives,” even opened its very first show with her getting arrested over the incident in police bodycam footage. (Both Hulu and ABC are owned by the Walt Disney Company.)
If viewers had no downside persevering with to help Paul on their screen then, ABC execs seemingly thought the same could be true for “The Bachelorette,” Page Six Hollywood reported.
But it’s also true that its a lot tougher to ignore the footage, which was initially recorded on Mortensen’s cellphone.
Indy could be heard crying after seemingly being struck, with Mortensen later claiming, “Your daughter just got hit in the head with a metal chair.”
Paul was next set to star in Season 22 of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” as seen above. Disney
During the argument, Paul had accused Mortensen of beginning the struggle, yelling “You did this. You threw me,” repeatedly.
A spokesperson for Paul slammed the “selectively edited” clip, saying it’s half of Mortensen’s “never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor.”
The couple break up in December 2024.
Despite the controversy, Paul was recruited to turn out to be the next Bachelorette, even though she had not appeared in “The Bachelor” franchise beforehand — a first in the show’s historical past.
The show was canned after a video surfaced of Paul violently attacking her ex, Dakota Mortensen, in 2023. GWN
The incident exhibits the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star kicking and hitting him and throwing a chair at him. GWN
Industry insiders have speculated ABC needed to freshen up the franchise and function somebody who might probably entice a youthful, TikTok-loving demographic; Paul has seven million followers on social media.
“There’s this sure stigma, if you’ll, that ‘The Bachelorette’ must be a little bit more classier, more possibly than I’m.
“I’m like, ‘Do I need to clean up my mouth?’ … But then, I’m like, uh, no,” Paul told The Hollywood Reporter of touchdown the show.
Paul (pictured above holding her son, Ever, with Mortensen at her facet) responded to the clip’s release, calling it a half of Mortensen’s “destructive campaign to harm” the fact star. TikTok/@dakotamortensen
“For me, it’s like, [I have to] be who I am — [it’s a] take it or leave it kind of thing … People can either love it or hate it, but at least I was just being me.”
But who precisely Paul is appears more and more chaotic. A rep for the Draper City Police Department clarified Friday “allegations have been made in both directions” between her and Mortensen.
Paul misplaced momentary custody of her two-year-old son, Ever, whom she shares with Mortensen, after Mortensen filed for an order of safety against her on Thursday.
The Secret Lives of Mormon solid. Disney via Getty Images
Adding to the drama, earlier this month, a number of “Mormon Wives” stars told ABC executives at a assembly that they had considerations about persevering with the show if Paul remained concerned, according to audio obtained by NBC News.
During the call, solid members voiced their considerations over the future of their careers, the show’s model and the allegations surrounding Paul and Mortensen.
The fifth season of “Mormon Wives” premiered March 12. That same day, Mortensen claimed he spent the night time with Paul before she left to movie “The Bachelorette.”
The hit show has since halted manufacturing, according to studies.
“They are not filming,” a source told PEOPLE of the show. “Taylor [Frankie Paul] has some pretty serious stuff happening regarding her past, and they will see what happens. Until that resolves, they are off.”
Now, with “The Bachelorette” off the air, too, it leaves Paul in a robust place.
Taylor Frankie Paul was an influencer before becoming a member of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Instagram / @taylorfrankiepaul
Before turning into a actuality TV star, Paul was a Utah-based influencer who constructed a huge following on TikTok as one of the faces of “MomTok,” a loosely affiliated group of Mormon mothers who turned suburban life into viral content.
Despite their healthful subject matter, it was in the end scandal that put Paul on viewers’ radars.
In May 2022, she precipitated waves when she revealed she was getting divorced in a viral TikTok livestream.
She later revealed that she and then-husband, Tate Paul, had been experimenting with non-monogamy — what she described as “soft-swinging,” with strict guidelines that {couples} couldn’t go “all the way” with another person, unless their spouses had been current.
In an explosive twist, Paul also claimed other members of the MomTok circle — and their husbands — had been half of the association, though she stopped short of naming names.
Season 22 of “The Bachelorette” was shelved by ABC on Thursday after video of a 2023 home violence incident involving Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen surfaced. Disney
Paul, seen on March 20, has misplaced momentary custody of her son Ever. SL, Terma / BACKGRID
“Everyone has hooked up with, like, everyone,” Paul said at the time.
The revelation shattered the rigorously curated image of squeaky-clean Mormon domesticity and the fallout was brutal.
Several members of the MomTok circle distanced themselves from her, and, according to studies, some outright refused to movie with her in any capability. Their causes went past embarrassment: insiders claimed trust had been damaged, boundaries crossed and friendships irreparably broken.
Paul, however, leaned into the chaos. She rebranded herself as a messy, unfiltered truth-teller — a transfer that only grew her viewers.
“Swinging — that’s such a scandal headline — but it’s also a very traumatic time in my life. That was one of my rock-bottom points,” she told US Weekly earlier this month.
“I lost my family, my husband. It’s so much deeper than that to me, and deep conversations were had. I think anyone that actually cares about me would definitely be asking those.”
Seeing Paul’s potential, Hulu then developed “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” centered around her and following the lives of a group of Mormon influencers in Utah. It premiered in 2024, making Paul a fully-fledged actuality TV star.
By that time Paul had made a plea deal over the three felonies and one misdemeanor rely each of felony mischief and little one abuse she confronted as a end result of the 2023 incident.
Under her plea deal, the felony charge she pleaded guilty to will likely be diminished to a misdemeanor, supplied she satisfactorily obeys the phrases of her three-year probation and the other expenses had been dismissed, per studies.
Now, her entire profession hangs in the stability, over the very incident which launched it.
Meanwhile, ABC stands to lose hundreds of thousands if “The Bachelorette” is totally shelved. The community can have to eat the prices of manufacturing and advertising, plus misplaced advert income, and, per Variety, it’ll also owe license charges to Warner Bros. Unscripted TV.
The community sunk even more money into extra programming selling the new season, including an HGTV “Bachelor Nation Takeover” and a “Before the First Rose” particular that ran in the coveted slot immediately following the Oscars, as reported by Page Sic Hollywood.
Paul’s historical past of risky habits — and Disney brass’ willingness to wager big on her in spite of it — might now tank not just one, but two key franchises.
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