A former Bachelorette producer claims ABC knew exactly what they were getting into when they chose to cast The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul as their upcoming lead.
Paul is currently the subject of a lot of controversy after recently being accused of domestic violence by her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. Mortensen is the father of Paul’s youngest child and has appeared on SLOMW numerous times.
This is not the first time that Paul has been involved in an incident like this. She was arrested in 2023 after Mortensen accused her of assault. Because of her history, many fans do not believe Paul should have been cast for the lead role of The Bachelorette in the first place.
In an interview with TMZ, ex-producer Michael Carroll explained how much things have changed with The Bachelorette franchise, with leads once requiring a squeaky clean image to even be considered for the role.
“Unbelievably strict, you pretty much had to be a Mormon wife at that point. Like, you had a background check, you had a medical check, you know, mental capacity check, you had all the things,” he said. “They wouldn’t even let anyone who had any kind of charges against them, and you were just a clean team back there if you were on the show.”
Nevertheless, Carroll believes that producers knew about the controversy surrounding Paul before casting her and chose to do so anyway for the purpose of ratings.
“The casting department, at least with executive producers, was completely aware who this person was, especially because it seems to me like a publicity grab to get this contestant,” he said.
He went on to emphasize that the newest controversy could not have been a shock for ABC.
“There is no way ABC could have been blindsided by this. They are in total cahoots with the executive producers up until the moment of filming,” he said.
