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The Bachelorette is upending its tried-and-true formula by enlisting Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star and #MomToker Taylor Frankie Paul for its 22nd season.
Paul revealed the news on Wednesday during an appearance on Call Her Daddy — itself a major shift from the usual way Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants are announced on other ABC shows. Speaking with host Alex Cooper, Paul called the news “surreal,” adding, “It has not hit me right now in this moment. I’m just thinking about it, and it’s not real. And it’s not going to be until I think the limo is pulling up, you know? And meeting the people.”
In Bachelor/Bachelorette terms, the decision to cast Paul is significant for many reasons. First of all, the franchise has tended to pull its season leads from its own ranks over the years, with many Bachelorette stars having previously competed on The Bachelor, and vice versa.
This approach to casting has helped bolster a perception that constants are there “for the right reasons,” meaning, to find love. That’s not to say Paul, a single mother of three, isn’t also looking for love. But the decision to cast someone who’s already somewhat famous and uses social media in a way that’s somewhat anathema to the whole “right reasons” mantra could raise eyebrows among franchise fans. (As Paul herself noted on Call Her Daddy, her road to The Bachelorette started three years ago when she made a joke-y TikTok about how she should be on the show.)
Paul spoke about some of the reservations she had about participating, especially when it came to making her time on the show work while being a mom. “I’m a co-parent, I have two baby daddies, not one, so I’m dealing with two different people, my children, my home base is here. Can I travel that long? Can I be gone that long? … I was like, I can. If you want to, you can. And it comes down to that, so I was just like, I will make it work.”
Prior to starring on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Paul was a prominent figure in the #MomTok community. In 2022, she gained particular notoriety after revealing that not only were she and her now ex-husband, Tate Paul, getting divorced, but they and many other members of the #MomTok community were “soft-swinging” with each other.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives picked up in the aftermath of this scandal. The first season followed Paul as she and her new boyfriend at the time prepared to have a baby together. They have since broken up.
