Bachelor Nation is speaking out within the wake of ABC pulling “The Bachelorette” from the schedule. On Thursday, ABC announced the choice to not 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 in regards to the recent season. About three minutes in, the announcement got here through that the show had been canceled. She was visibly shocked.
“I feel it’s over. I used to be trying to consider a scenario where it might be different. Because this isn’t just, ‘Oh, we put all of it on an individual. This person did this.’ That is the system that allowed this to occur,” she said. “The name ‘Bachelorette,’ ‘Bachelor’ is tainted at this point. How do you progress forward past that? You possibly 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 whenever you moved Taylor Frankie Paul over [from ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’]. Now it is totally destroyed. Like, why did you guys think this was okay? That’s the query that should be answered. We’re never gonna get that from Taylor at this point. I could make an argument ‘Secret Lives’ might be done.”
Before their son was born, Paul was arrested for allegedly hitting, choking and throwing chairs at Mortensen, and pleaded guilty to at least one count of aggravated assault. Her arrest delayed the filming between the primary 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 feel you furthermore mght must acknowledge that so many persons are about to lose their jobs, and that’s the irresponsible part too, with the network,” Lindsay said. “In an industry immediately where it’s slim pickings in the case of recent shows and folks even leaving the positions that they’ve, the roles … don’t exist.”
She continued, “We just must acknowledge — whoever decided to look past these issues or a video or a background [check], and know that this might possibly come out and be detrimental to the franchise, whether it was one person, multiple people — now, it’s an even bigger loss. It’s not only that you simply don’t get your season [to] air. It’s that individuals are going to be unemployed… Anyone’s going to must 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 as a consequence of recent allegations of domestic violence from each Paul and Mortensen.
After the cancellation was announced, Paul’s rep released an announcement, saying, “Taylor may be 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 in addition to threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to be sure that she and her children are shielded from any further harm.”