Content warning: Reference to domestic violence.
From TikTok star to starring in the reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (SLOMW) on Hulu, Taylor Frankie Paul is not new to becoming a headline. Arrested in 2023 on a domestic violence dispute, Frankie Paul served jail time awaiting trial, and was released with a three year probation period for her actions against then-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
The Walt Disney Company owns ABC, where The Bachelorette airs, and Hulu, which airs SLOMW. Seeing as Disney owns Hulu, they should have been able to see why Frankie Paul’s track of toxic relationships and domestic violence should not have been an option for The Bachelorette.
Frankie Paul recorded a season of The Bachelorette with ABC, but a few days prior to the season premier, TMZ released never-before-seen footage of the moments leading up to her 2023 arrest. This footage sparked a media outrage as fans called for her Bachelorette season to be canceled and for her to be taken out of the upcoming season five of SLOMW.
While it is a difficult situation to be in for Frankie Paul and Mortensen alike, the sheer amount of media coverage of their relationship shouldn’t have been the first choice for ABC’s show about finding a forever partner. Frankie Paul and Mortensen, while broken up, share a child together that Frankie Paul gave birth to after her 2023 arrest. Disney, a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate with large influence, shouldn’t be giving these kinds of problematic relationships platforms.
Grace Rommel, a sophomore international studies and French double major, reacted to the horrifying TMZ video.
“It was not fun to see someone’s lowest point like that,” Rommel said. “To see how bad it was, especially because she is a mom and her kids were involved, that’s kind of really where my heart was hurting.”
With the state of Utah — where the incident occurred — having strict security surrounding domestic violence disputes, many fans believe that it was Mortensen who released the footage to TMZ.
“I think that [the release of the footage] was calculated for sure,” Rommel said. “I don’t know if it was necessarily [Taylor’s season of] the Bachelorette that he was thinking about.”
No doubt Disney is staffed with talented PR professionals and experts, yet they still failed to realize Frankie Paul was going to be bad PR and bring a load of drama — and not the good kind. They would’ve had better luck taking a girl from a previous season, or even a random person off the street, and it would’ve been better than someone with a televised track record of toxicity.
Disney should have been more careful considering how many people were going to be watching the show. This kind of relationship should not be normalized. Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette was officially canceled on March 19, and production for season five of SLOMW was put on pause.
While Frankie Paul is receiving major backlash online, some fans of the show point out the progress that she has been able to make since the situation. Sophomore entrepreneurship and innovation major Isabella Di Vernieri echoed the growth Frankie Paul has made.
“Some people think this video just happened a week ago, when it actually happened three years ago,” Di Vernieri said. “Taylor Frankie Paul has always, since that video came out, taken full ownership of it. She said out loud on a podcast that she was the abuser. She knows she messed up, she knows she was in the wrong.”
According to the SLOMW Instagram, it was the decision of the other cast members who chose to halt filming of season five until at least speculation goes down and all of the facts are brought to light. First-year nursing major Maria Killacky discussed her views on what’s next for season five.
“I think they should continue [SLOMW] without her,” Killacky said. “I think she’s done too much to hurt the show, and even if she’s a fan favorite, her and everything that’s happened in the world i just don’t think it’s okay that she’s still on the show.”
Frankie Paul and Mortensen never had a healthy relationship shown on the show, and with the drama going on, one aspect that stands out is the home environment that their child is having to deal with.
“I think they shouldn’t be in contact because they’re not a stable relationship, and they never will be,” Killacky said. “They can’t put their differences aside for their child, so therefore they should just go their separate ways and make it simpler for the child.”
Going forward this whole ordeal cost ABC around 60 million dollars, and a big lesson. Do your research on your own contestants, especially when it comes to a show that has a massive influence and audience.