Will Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette ever see the light of day?
That is, of course, the question du jour after Season 22 of the long-running dating series was pulled just days before premiere following a video that depicted a 2023 domestic violence incident between the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star and her ex Dakota Mortenson. As of now, Disney execs are seemingly still weighing their options.
“It’s still day-to-day, so we’ll see,” Disney’s reality TV chief Rob Mills said during Deadline’s Reality TV Summit on Friday afternoon.
Right now, Mills and his team over at ABC and Hulu is focused on Paul’s wellbeing as she navigates the aftermath of the last few months. In addition to the Bachelorette cancellation, filming on Season 5 of Mormon Wives was paused indefinitely in March over new domestic violence allegations between Paul and Mortenson that surfaced earlier this year.
“It’s a good question,” Mills said, regarding whether Paul’s season may eventually air. “On a personal level…we want to make sure she’s okay.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has already resumed filming, and Disney has indicated they are open to Paul returning as soon as she’s ready. Earlier this month, she opened up on her own social media about moving forward after this rough patch.
“Here come the ugly parts of what healing actually looks like,” she prefaced in the Instagram post. “If you know me you know I’ll admit my parts, flaws, and faults. I’m well aware that’s apart of it. We’ll get there. This public atrocity that I not only lived through once but twice now, on even a bigger scale was ultimately the cost to my freedom. I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy or even the ones who publicized it. I cried on my knees in pain while also saying THANK YOU we have a road ahead but regardless I’m forever freed from a certain living hell I couldn’t find my way out of.”
