‘Bachelorette’ Taylor Frankie Paul Is Just the Latest Reality TV Failing

Taylor Frankie Paul’s 2023 domestic dispute with her ex-boyfriend and co-star Dakota Mortensen was a major storyline when The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives launched back in the fall of 2024.

The shiny Hulu show that has become a cultural phenomenon was kickstarted on the back of her 2023 arrest, stemming from a domestic incident with Mortensen. After showing footage of the two together during the very first episode of the reality series with her then-boyfriend, shot specifically for Mormon Wives, the show cut to footage of Paul’s shocking arrest, which forced a break in production. Episode two then picked up with Paul pregnant, following a miscarriage, both stemming from her relationship with Mortensen. 

Flash forward one year later and Paul was named as the next lead of The Bachelorette for ABC, another network under Disney. The breakout star and popular #MomTok Mormon mom-influencer (who has amassed a large online following, with more than 2 million followers on Instagram) being named as the season 22 lead was a needed viral boost for the long-running franchise that had taken a ratings hit and notable season off in 2025. Paul’s arrest was well known to the Mormon Wives audience, and it was a topic Paul herself addressed in interviews.

But all of that changed for Paul when TMZ released footage from that 2023 incident three days before The Bachelorette was set to premiere. The video depicted the physical conflict between Paul and Mortensen, with the former seen kicking her ex partner and throwing chairs at him. In the grainy footage, TMZ points out where Paul’s daughter was sitting in close proximity, with Mortensen yelling out, “Your daughter is right here,” as she launched a chair his way. At the end of the video, she throws another chair. A child can be heard crying.

ABC moved swiftly. Hours after the video was leaked, the network pulled Paul’s season of The Bachelorette, a first-ever move for a long-running franchise produced by Warner Bros. Television that has weathered its fair share of controversy. The decision, however, also came amid a fresh alleged domestic incident involving Paul and Mortensen that is currently being investigated by Utah’s Draper City Police Department. Authorities confirmed on Monday that “allegations have been made in both directions.”

The chaos of Paul’s life was lightning in a bottle for Mormon Wives, which has become a mega-hit series for Hulu. But news of the new investigation put filming for the forthcoming fifth season on pause earlier this week. With the series in limbo, Hulu has not yet commented on if Paul will remain a part of next season. (THR has reached out for comment.)

Paul is far from being the first TV personality to draw limelight for a turbulent past. And she won’t be the last. Her scandal has reignited the debate about the ethics of the genre, which feeds on scandal.

Caroline Flack, the longtime host of the mainstay Love Island franchise, died at 40 in February 2020, by suicide. Her death followed a domestic assault charge involving her former partner, which led to a wave of online hate.

The events leading up to Flack’s death were spotlighted in a 2025 Hulu series, where text messages and audio clips from the former Love Island host shed light on her mental state amid the virtual attacks. “My life is over,” she wrote in one message. (Vanity Fair went deeper into the tragedies that have resulted for Love Island reality stars in 2022, which includes three suicides.)

Over the past year there has also been a lawsuit involving Bravo, which is largely considered the main hub for the reality genre. Former Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney filed a suit against the network, NBCUniversal, producers and Andy Cohen in February 2024, claiming she was pressured into breaking her sobriety for ratings. 

McSweeney argued that producers knew she was sober and “nefariously” pressured her to drink on camera while filming two RHONY installments and one season of Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip.

Over a year later, the case is still ongoing, with a judge ruling on Tuesday that the argument will proceed in federal court, despite a request to move to private arbitration. The network, production companies and the Watch What Happens Live host argued McSweeney was not an employee but an independent contractor, so she was not entitled to certain workplace protections. Cohen filed to dismiss the suit in May 2024, with court documents alleging that McSweeney’s allegations are “threadbare” and should be “dismissed as a matter of law.” 

The docs also said that McSweeney’s claims of discrimination “impermissibly seek to abridge Defendants’ First Amendment rights to tailor and adjust the messages they wish to convey in their creative works, including through cast selection and other creative decisions.”

McSweeney wrote on her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, “Reality TV might look like entertainment, but behind the drama, there can be harmful misconduct that should never be normalized.”

The ID docuseries Hollywood Demons investigated deeper into the Real Housewives franchise in late 2025, arriving almost a year after the Dark Side of Reality TV that debuted in late 2024, taking dives into shows including the Bravo juggernaut, Survivor and America’s Next Top Model. The inner workings and downsides of the latter reality show were recently investigated in the Reality Check miniseries, marking yet another reality-centered spectacle. Allegations were also explored in a recent TLC docuseries about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Mary Cosby.

But Paul’s Mormon Wives and subsequent Bachelorette scandal has sent the internet into a tailspin, with many outlets pointing out that The Bachelorette knew about Paul’s past when she was cast (though, Disney/ABC executives only saw the video when it leaked, as THR reported), once again bringing ethics of reality TV into question. Real Housewives OG Bethenny Frankel began advocating for the unionization of the genre during the joint actors-writers strike in 2023, arguing that reality crew and cast members deserve added protections as the genre has continued to grow, and drive in big bucks for networks. 

So far, there’s been no progress with Frankel’s “reality reckoning.” All the while, mint reality shows have taken TV by storm.

Love Island USA became a smashing success in the summer of 2023. Season two of The Traitors launched to unparalleled triumph in early 2024, and has been on an upward trajectory since. Then came The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.  

Season one was the most-watched unscripted premiere for Hulu in 2024, surpassing the likes of The Kardashians. Season two earned five million global viewers in its first five days across Disney+ and Hulu. And then they earned their first Emmy nomination.

An element that sets Mormon Wives apart from shows in the genre is its release schedule: Not only do all episodes drop at one time, but they drop in record speed. Season one came out Sept. 6, 2024; season two arrived eight months later on May 15, 2025; season three sped up with six months in between installments, airing on Nov. 13; and season four just dropped on March 12, marking only four months between seasons. 

Executive producer Jeff Jenkins told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of season three’s debut that the cast has been “shooting very consistently, since the kickoff of shooting season one,” and receive “a few months of break in between seasons, but not much.” At the time, fellow EP Lisa Filipelli said their rigorous filming schedule has been “such a challenge” for the cast and crew, with Jenkins adding that they were working on “finding a balance.”

It’s unclear if that balance has been found. Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck simultaneously shot for Mormon Wives and Dancing With the Stars through the former series’ fourth season last fall. Directly after her time on the dance show, Affleck told THR that juggling both shows was “very hard.” 

“I almost feel like I’ve been on autopilot, just because to even get time to just, like, take a shower, that even has felt like a lot,” she explained.  

Paul, who has endured many personal challenges throughout her time on the series, hasn’t been shy in sharing those struggles on camera. She told THR, right after being named the next Bachelorette, that re-watching her past struggles when new seasons air “is one of the hardest parts of this job.”

“To go back and watch really hard scenes, of course it re-triggers it all. I have to mentally prepare [myself] that that is not where I am now, even though those same feelings are resurfacing,” Paul explained. “There is definitely a mental game with that, and it can be really hard.” 

Days before her show was canceled, she told THR that the recent headlines have been hard to navigate. “It’s been really difficult and heavy given, you know, all the headlines and what’s going on,” she said. “But I would say I am handling it like any normal human would, like struggling, but trying to show up at the same time.”

After ABC yanked the series, she said she was “exploring all of her options, seeking support, and preparing to own and share her story.”

Throughout season four of Mormon Wives, Paul admitted that she was grappling with the decision to head off to date dozens of men while shooting another show on The Bachelorette amid her wants to be with Mortensen. She nearly did not leave for filming, having hooked up with Mortensen the night before she hopped on a plane to Los Angeles to head to the Bachelor mansion.

He, along with the rest of the husbands and a few exes of the main cast, were a main focus of season four. As the former partner to Paul, his presence at so many filming events was curious (the men argue he deserved to be present because he is apart of DadTok).

By the time Paul had to leave for The Bachelorette, her contract was already signed. “I definitely knew she wasn’t ready,” Mormon Wives star Mikayla Matthews told Us Weekly of Paul being the Bachelorette. “I think that was an opportunity for her to be forced to be away from the toxic cycle that she was in with Dakota, at least for a period of time.”

ABC took a risk on casting Paul as their lead, and the news surrounding their starlet is undoubtedly raising questions about the future of the female-led spinoff to The Bachelor. The series needed the viral boost from Paul after a Bachelorette season break and an uncertain time for the wide Bachelor franchise. Now in place of The Bachelorette, ABC will air an encore of American Idol in the 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. time slot this Sunday. It is not currently clear if that will be continue throughout the season.

It would have been a costly decision to forfeit the season before filming began in late October when it was realized that Paul wasn’t ready to step into the role of the Bachelorette. But now, the network will pay an even bigger cost for canceling the season — and that’s not including the monetary downfall of scrapping an entire installment that was ready to air on Sunday, and already filmed to completion.

Could Taylor Frankie Paul’s latest scandal spark needed change in the genre?

“The reality of all this is that people genuinely need help and we are seeing that. We are witnessing that live,” said Charity Lawson, season 20 lead of The Bachelorette, in a recent TikTok. “My hope is that we can see there is a much bigger issue here at hand and that the mental health of contestants should never be compromised so severely for ratings.”