Bachelor Nation is speaking out in the wake of ABC pulling “The Bachelorette” from the schedule. On Thursday, ABC announced the decision not to air the season, hours after a video of a 2023 domestic dispute between their lead, Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, leaked online.
Former “Bachelorette” lead Rachel Lindsay was caught off guard when the news broke while she was recording the “Bachelor Party” podcast.
Lindsay, who competed on Season 21 of “The Bachelor” before becoming the lead of Season 13 of “The Bachelorette,” was set to record an episode of the Spotify podcast about the new season. About three minutes in, the announcement came through that the show had been canceled. She was visibly shocked.
“I think it’s over. I was trying to think of a scenario where it could be different. Because this isn’t just, ‘Oh, we put it all on a person. This person did this.’ This is the system that allowed this to happen,” she said. “The name ‘Bachelorette,’ ‘Bachelor’ is tainted at this point. How do you move forward past that? You can’t.”
She then asked, “How do you trust this name, ‘Bachelor,’ ‘Bachelorette,’ that has meant something to people, moving forward? You don’t. You already questioned it when you moved Taylor Frankie Paul over [from ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’]. Now it is completely destroyed. Like, why did you guys think this was okay? That’s the question that needs to be answered. We’re never gonna get that from Taylor at this point. I could make an argument ‘Secret Lives’ could be done.”
Before their son was born, Paul was arrested for allegedly hitting, choking and throwing chairs at Mortensen, and pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault. Her arrest delayed the filming between the first and second episodes of “Mormon Wives.” While the police report was public and Taylor was on probation, video of the incident was never released publicly until Thursday.
“I think you also have to acknowledge that so many people are about to lose their jobs, and that’s the irresponsible part too, with the network,” Lindsay said. “In an industry right now where it is slim pickings when it comes to new shows and people even leaving the positions that they have, the jobs … do not exist.”
She continued, “We just have to acknowledge — whoever decided to look past these issues or a video or a background [check], and know that this could possibly come out and be detrimental to the franchise, whether it was one person, multiple people — now, it’s a bigger loss. It’s not just that you don’t get your season [to] air. It’s that people are going to be unemployed… Somebody’s going to have to take the blame for not vetting this out.”
Three days before “The Bachelorette” was pulled, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” paused filming of Season 5 due to new allegations of domestic violence from both Paul and Mortensen.
After the cancellation was announced, Paul’s rep released a statement, saying, “Taylor is very grateful for ABC’s support as she prioritizes her family’s safety and security. After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm.”
