ABC cancels 'Bachelorette' season with Taylor Frankie Paul, citing 2023
video
[March 20, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON and ALICIA RANCILIO
LOS ANGELES (AP) — ABC has scrubbed the upcoming season of “The
Bachelorette,” starring Taylor Frankie Paul, three days before its
planned premiere, citing a newly released video from 2023 in which she
appears to punch, kick and throw chairs at her former partner as her
young daughter watched and cried.
Thursday's cancellation of the already filmed 22nd season of the reality
show is unprecedented. While ABC parent company Disney cited the older
video, the move comes amid a current domestic violence investigation
involving Paul and Dakota Mortensen, father to a son who is the youngest
of her three children.
“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,”
a statement from Disney Entertainment Television said.
A Paul representative responded that she has been abused for years while
remaining silent about it.
Before her “Bachelorette” casting, Paul had already become a reality
star through “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” whose production is
paused.
In 2023 video published by TMZ Thursday, Mortensen is apparently trying
to stave off Paul with one hand while he shoots phone video. She is
shown punching him, kicking him then throwing three chairs at him while
repeatedly screaming “You did this!"
“The only thing you know how to do is hurt me,” Mortensen says, while
repeatedly pleading with Paul and reminding her that her daughter was
watching. A child can be heard sobbing, screaming and shouting “mommy!”
Paul's daughter would have been about 5 at the time.
The video was consistent with Paul's arrest in 2023, when she was
charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic
violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
assault charge; the other counts were dismissed.
A spokesman for Paul said in a statement Thursday that she 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.”
The statement said “Taylor has remained silent out of fear of further
abuse, retaliation, and public shaming” and that she is now “exploring
all of her options, seeking support, and preparing to own and share her
story.”
Mortensen denied wrongdoing.
“As anyone who has seen the video will understand, this is a deeply
upsetting situation. I am, unfortunately, used to these baseless claims
about me and our relationship, which I categorically deny. I am focusing
on our son and his safety, and hope that Taylor will do the same,” his
statement said.
A police spokesperson in Draper City, Utah, told People magazine earlier
this week that there was an open domestic violence investigation of Paul
and Mortensen, and that both have made allegations.
Mortensen's representatives didn't immediately answer requests for
comment.
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Taylor Frankie Paul appears at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March
15, 2026. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
ABC will air an “American Idol” rerun Sunday instead.
Paul was promoting “The Bachelorette” as recently as Wednesday on “Good
Morning America” and on the red carpet before Sunday’s Oscars.
She was an unusual choice to helm “The Bachelorette,” the reality TV
institution that started in 2003. Most leads are cast from previous
runners-up from “The Bachelor.”
Her selection instead offered synergy with “The Secret Lives of Mormon
Wives” on Hulu, also owned by Disney. In a statement confirming her
“Bachelorette” casting in October, ABC credited Paul with “igniting
‘MomTok’ and going viral for pulling back the curtain on Salt Lake’s
soft-swinging scene.”
Paul became known as an influencer in the #MomTok community, a group of
women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sharing their
lives on TikTok. She made news when she announced, in 2022, that she had
“stepped out” of an agreement with her husband on relationships with
other couples and they were getting divorced.
Season 4 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” was released last week.
Filming of Season 5 has been put on pause.
“It was a decision that all of us girls came up with,” Paul’s co-star
Mikayla Matthews said Wednesday on Instagram. “We didn’t feel
comfortable filming with everything that was happening.”
Paul posted on Instagram in December that filming had wrapped on “The
Bachelorette."
Her casting was essentially an experiment gone wrong, said Kate Casey, a
former crisis communications specialist who has covered unscripted
television in more than 1,500 episodes of her podcast “Reality Life with
Kate Casey.”
“I think they were trying to shake things up, and it makes sense because
the ecosystem is saturated with dating shows like ‘F-Boy Island’ and
‘Love Island’ that push the boundaries and ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The
Bachelorette’ historically have been saccharine,” said Casey.
Casey says network executives probably believed casting Paul would also
tap into her 6.1 million-strong TikTok following.
“The thinking was probably, ‘We’re going to get a new audience’ and the
new audience is really the most coveted in all of entertainment,” she
said.
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Rancilio reported from Detroit.
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