ABC has scrubbed the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette,” starring Taylor Frankie Paul, citing a newly launched video from 2023.
Thursday’s unprecedented cancellation of the already filmed season of the long-running actuality tv present comes days earlier than it was to premiere, on Sunday.
“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 press release from Disney Entertainment Television stated.
The assertion appeared to reference a 2023 video of an altercation between Paul and Dakota Mortensen that was printed by TMZ on Thursday. Paul was arrested in 2023 and charged with aggravated assault and different offenses, together with home violence within the presence of a kid. She pleaded responsible that August to a misdemeanor cost of aggravated assault; the opposite costs have been dismissed.
A police spokesperson in Draper City, Utah, advised People journal that there was an open home violence investigation of Paul and her ex-partner Mortensen, and that allegations have been made in each instructions. Mortensen is the daddy of one in every of Paul’s three youngsters.
Representatives for Paul and Mortensen did not instantly return requests for remark. ABC’s assertion did not embrace particulars on what the community deliberate to do with the present’s time slot.
Paul, who was selling Season 22 as not too long ago as Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and on the purple carpet earlier than Sunday’s Oscars telecast, was an uncommon option to helm “The Bachelorette.” Unlike earlier leads, the 31-year-old had not appeared on the “Bachelor” franchise earlier than — a departure from the everyday observe of casting runners-up from earlier seasons.
Her choice did supply synergy, although, as she additionally stars on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a Hulu actuality present. Both Hulu and ABC are owned by Disney. In a press release confirming her 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 grew to become referred to as an influencer within the #MomTok group, a gaggle of girls from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sharing their lives on TikTok. She made news when she introduced, in 2022, that she had “stepped out” of an settlement along with her husband by way of relationships with different {couples} and so they have been getting divorced.
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” premiered in 2024. While Season 4 launched final week, filming on Season 5 had already paused over the investigation.
“It was a decision that all of us girls came up with,” Paul’s co-star Mikayla Matthews stated Wednesday on Instagram in response to a fan query concerning the manufacturing freeze. “We didn’t feel comfortable filming with everything that was happening.”
Paul posted on Instagram in December that filming had wrapped on “The Bachelorette,” which is hosted by Jesse Palmer.
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