Rachel Lindsay says the ‘Bachelor’ franchise is over after Taylor Frankie Paul
Bachelor Nation is speaking out after ABC pulled ‘The Bachelorette’ from the program. On Thursday, ABC announced the decision not to air the season, hours after video of a 2023 domestic dispute between their lead actor, Taylor Frankie Paul, and her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, leaked online.
Former “Bachelorette” lead actress Rachel Lindsay was taken aback 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 on season 13 of “The Bachelorette,” was scheduled to record an episode of the Spotify podcast about the new season. About three minutes later came the announcement 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 blamed it all on one person. This person did this.’ This is the system that made this possible,” she said. “The name ‘Bachelorette’ is tainted at this point. How do you get past that? You can’t.”
She then asked, “How do you trust this name, ‘Bachelor,’ ‘Bachelorette,’ that has meant something to people and is moving forward? You don’t. You already doubted it when you moved Taylor Frankie Paul [from ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’]. Now it is completely destroyed. Why did you think this was okay? That is the question that needs to be answered. We’ll never get that from Taylor right now. I could argue that ‘Secret Lives’ are possible.’
Before their son was born, Paul was arrested for allegedly beating, choking and throwing chairs at Mortensen, and he pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated assault. Her arrest delayed filming between the first and second episodes of “Mormon Wives.” Although the police report was public and Taylor was on probation, the video of the incident was not publicly released until Thursday.
“I think you also have to recognize that so many people are about to lose their jobs, and that’s also the irresponsible part of the network,” Lindsay said. “In an industry where the chances of new shows are currently slim and where people are even leaving the positions they have, the jobs… don’t exist.”
She continued: “We just have to acknowledge – whoever decided to look past these issues, a video or a wallpaper [check]and know that this could potentially come out and be detrimental to the franchise, whether it was one person or 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…Someone is going to have to take the blame for not looking into this.”
Three days before “The Bachelorette” was pulled, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” paused season 5 filming 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 the safety of her family. After years of quietly suffering extensive mental and physical abuse and threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and take steps to ensure she and her children are protected from further harm.”
