Disney is canceling this season of The Bachelorette.
“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,” Disney noted in a statement.
It comes after star Taylor Frankie Paul has been engulfed in a domestic assault investigation, which had thrown ABC into disarray this week ahead of Sunday’s Season 22 premiere. So far, ABC hasn’t said whether Season 22 of The Bachelorette will ever see the light of day. Deadline understands Disney even yanked the first episode off its press screening site around mid-day Thursday as the internal decision was made to pause this season’s rollout.
This follows a bad twelve months for The Bachelor franchise after it parked The Bachelorette last season and fired the franchise’s two top showrunners for their part in a “toxic” workplace. This was meant to be a triumphant return for the female-led version of the stalwart series, this time led by a famous face from another popular Disney reality franchise, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
News broke earlier this week that filming had paused on Season 5 of Hulu‘s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives due to a domestic assault investigation involving Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortenson. Both are regularly featured on the reality show, and very often their tumultuous relationship is on full display, particularly in Season 4, which filmed in the fall.
A video that surfaced Thursday shows Frankie Paul, in 2023, repeatedly trying to physically attack Mortenson and throwing several metal barstools at him while a child is present, an incident that eventually led Frankie Paul to plead guilty to aggravated assault.
Draper City Police Department confirmed that there is an open “domestic assault investigation” involving the pair with allegations “made in both directions.” Frankie Paul also alleged wrongdoing on Mortenson’s part in the 2023 case.
During a press dinner Monday night, Frankie Paul was asked about the news, to which she said, “Honestly, just like, my heart hurts to see it, to go through it, especially at this time. Just the timing is hard, and it’s a big deal. I feel like every premiere that I’ve experienced, I’ve never enjoyed fully, so this is another one… It’s extremely hard, and it took everything to get me here today.”
This is not the first time that the Bachelor franchise has been mired in scandal. In fact, it’s far from it. That said, none of the previous scandals have resulted in an entire season of the show being scrapped just days before its premiere date.
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