“I was being called this ‘best-friend husband-stealer.’ Had I not ever told the story, that’s all you would’ve known me as, and that’s not true. Yes, you can say that — but also tell them that you were sucking my husband’s dick, too. Don’t forget that.”
- Taylor Frankie Paul — America’s Most Eligible Bachelorette — speaking of her reputation in mid-February, in an interview with New York magazine.
Season 22 of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” starring Taylor Frankie Paul in the titular role, was filmed and ready to premiere Sunday. Three days before the season was set to debut, it was shelved for the foreseeable … ever.
I believe we can still save the show. In fact, I believe we can make “The Bachelorette” more popular than ever. All it would take is casting the right woman. Luckily for ABC, I’ve thought of five (and one man, for good measure).
But first, some background on why ABC canceled Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.” Skip to the bolded titles if you’re only interested in solutions.
“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 Disney Entertainment spokesperson told The New York Times (NYT).
The video in question, published by TMZ, appears to show Paul attacking and throwing chairs at her then-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, in 2023. Mortensen skillfully deflects the first two chairs, but the third chair appears to hit Paul’s daughter, who was curled up in the corner of the couch.
Paul claimed in 2024 that she and Mortensen don’t know if the chair hit her daughter, but that it “sounded like it did, so in the police report it does say, like, it hit her, but in reality, like, we didn’t know if it hit [her].”
Paul, who stars in the reality television show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” rose to prominence in 2022 for participating in what’s been dubbed the “soft-swinging scandal.”
“Soft swinging is when you do other things but you don’t go all the way,” Paul said in a TikTok Live in May 2022, according to Today. “That’s what happened with us.”
Paul, by her own admission, broke the terms of the agreement.
“The agreement was, we could do anything … as long as we were in front of each other and on the same page, it was fine,” Paul continued, during that TikTok Live, according to Today. “But the second you go separately, that’s not OK. And so I broke that rule.”
A bachelorette, says Merriam-Webster, is a “young unmarried woman.”
Paul is unmarried, by way of divorce. She has three children by two men.
She is 31 — not exactly young, in the context of dating — and has a strangely proportioned face.
This is fantastic news. It means the bar for our new bachelorette practically scrapes the ground. She doesn’t even have to meet the technical definition of a bachelorette.
Paul is in good shape, which does distinguish her from the majority of American women. I suspect producers of “The Bachelorette” selected Paul on the basis of her existing notoriety with women who watch reality television. With that in mind, what follows is a round-up of other notorious women who would probably drive ratings through the roof.
1. Casey Anthony
Casey Anthony is best known as a suspect in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony. Caylee was reported missing in July 2008. Her remains were found in December 2008.
A jury found Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child on July 5, 2011. Anthony was found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, but released on July 17, 2011 with credit for time served.
Anthony, as far as we know, is single. She “parted ways” with her boyfriend, a married man with two adult sons, the New York Post reported in November 2024.
Anthony is 40 years young. If you listen to her interrogations with the police — and I encourage you to do so — you’ll find that Anthony has a knack for storytelling. Most importantly, America was long enthralled by a “Casey Anthony Obsession,” as NPR put it. Any woman who turns a child-murder trial into a tourist attraction could surely get some of those same tourists to tune into a reality television dating show.
2. Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky might look better at 52 than she did at 22, the age at which she says she began a sexual relationship with then-President Bill Clinton.
Lewinsky could easily bear the sort of scrutiny that comes with being the bachelorette. She’s made a second career out of discussing the Clinton affair and restyled herself as an anti-bullying advocate. A positive role model, by all accounts, if you forget about some of the early life decisions.
3. Lindy West
This is the “kill two birds with one stone” solution.
Lindy West is married. Legally, at least. West went viral in 2022, and again in 2026, for her “polyamorous” marriage to husband Ahamefule “Aham” Oluo. West, Oluo, and Oluo’s girlfriend are in a “romantic triad,” according to West.
West, as many Substack essayists have noted, seems sad.
My amateur analysis of the body language in the below YouTube video, in which West and Oluo and Oluo’s girlfriend explain their relationship, is that Oluo appears to really like touching his girlfriend. He seems less affectionate with his wife.
I pity West, even though I seriously doubt she wants my pity. Nonetheless, I would love to see her as a bachelorette. She’s married, sure, but that’s no obstacle to finding true love (or it wasn’t, for her husband).
The marketing department should have an easy time with this one. The First Body Positive Bachelorette! The First Poly Positive Bachelorette! Actually, I’m uncertain if Paul qualifies as “poly” or just “into weird sex stuff,” but there’s not a huge amount of daylight between the two.
The execs can even reuse their slogan from Paul’s scrapped season: “If you don’t fit the mold, break it.”
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