Taylor Frankie Paul ‘Bachelorette’ Suitors Considering Legal Action Against ABC, Warner Bros. Discovery
It’s also complicating the next season of “The Bachelor.” Producers were going to pick one of the top four contenders from Taylor’s season to be the next ‘Bachelor’ with a final decision largely based on audience reaction. Now, producers have to start from scratch.
On March 7, Paul’s Mormon Wives co-stars had a 30-minute Zoom call with three Disney executives including Rob Mills, executive vp unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television.
They voiced their concerns about the future of their show amid a new alleged domestic incident that took place in February between Paul and her on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen, whom with Paul shares one of her three children.
NBC News obtained audio of the call and reported on the meeting on Friday, one day after ABC scrapped Paul’s already-filmed season of The Bachelorette, which had been set to premiere Sunday night.
The network’s swift decision followed TMZ posting a leaked video of a past February 2023 domestic violence incident involving Paul and Mortensen, and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives pausing filming on its forthcoming fifth season after it was reported that Utah’s Draper City Police Department had an open “domestic assault investigation” between Paul and Mortensen over the February incident.
Authorities said “allegations have been made in both directions” and that contact was made with both parties on Feb. 24 and 25.
During the Mormon Wives cast call, per the audio reported by NBC, one unnamed cast member said they did not feel comfortable filming while Paul was being investigated. “It’s a dangerous situation, it’s a sad situation and we don’t know how to navigate it, because Taylor is our friend,” the cast member reportedly said during the virtual meeting.
THR understands that the call was held so the executives could inform the cast that the show was going on pause amid their own investigation. They shared on the call, per a source close to the situation, that the production company on Mormon Wives, Jeff Jenkins Productions in association with 3BMG and Walt Disney Television Alternative, had hired a seasoned, third-party law firm to conduct an investigation into the “competing and conflicting allegations” being made by Paul and Mortensen.
The cast was told that filming on season five will remain on pause until production’s investigation, which is separate from the law enforcement investigation, concludes, which is expected to be by the end of next week, per the source.