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ABC has decided to pull the new season of hit dating franchise The Bachelorette after footage of its central star physically assaulting her former partner was leaked.
Taylor Frankie Paul, who gained fame on reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, had been cast as the central Bachelorette for the 22nd season, which was due to start on Sunday.
The 31-year-old TikTok influencer had been embroiled in controversy over her 2023 arrest for domestic violence against her now ex Dakota Mortensen. An ongoing “domestic assault investigation” is also under way over an incident in February this year, according to the Draper City police department in Utah.
At a press event this week, Paul said it had been “really difficult and heavy” to deal with the investigation, at which time ABC had seemed to be standing by its star and the new season even as she pulled out of an appearance on The Tonight Show on Wednesday.
On Thursday, new leaked video from 2023 showed Paul kicking Mortensen and throwing chairs at him with her daughter present. “Your daughter just got hit in the head by a metal chair!” Mortensen tells her, with crying heard from the five-year-old.
An indictment obtained by People showed that Paul threw “heavy, metal chairs” at Mortensen with the child also being struck.
The arrest aired during the season one premiere of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and Paul later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. She is still serving three years’ probation.
“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 statement from Disney said.
A statement from Paul’s team criticised Mortensen’s “never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor” as “a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behaviour”.
Earlier this week, production on the latest season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was also reportedly on pause. The Hulu show also falls under the Disney umbrella.
Last season, ABC was under fire after it was reported that the winner, Devin Strader, had a restraining order filed against him by a girlfriend in 2017 after allegations of physical assault. Strader called the accusations “simply not true” and noted that the restraining order was never granted.
ABC has not announced whether the 22nd season of The Bachelorette, which was reportedly filmed in full at the end of last year, will air at a future date.
