- Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette has officially been canceled amid a reported domestic violence dispute with her ex, Dakota Mortensen.
- Podcaster and Bachelor Nation alum, Nick Viall, took credit for her casting back in Sept. 2025.
- Nick has since broken his silence on the cancellation of Taylor’s season.
Nick Viall has officially entered the chat on the Taylor Frankie Paul of it all. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star was set to become ABC’s next Bachelorette until her season got completely scrapped amid a reported domestic dispute with her ex, Dakota Mortensen.
During the most recent episode of The Viall Files podcast, the Bachelor Nation alum provided some behind-the-scenes insight into the whole situation.
“I haven’t talked to anyone working on the show today, but my understanding of people who have talked to people, The Bachelor producers—maybe not at the highest level, but the people working on the show—were as equally surprised and as horrified to see what they saw on season 4,” Nick explained.
When TFP started filming The Bachelorette last fall, seasons 3 and 4 of SLOMW had not yet been released. While she was painted in a more positive light in the Hulu reality series’ third season, her mental health struggles and toxic relationship became a main plotline in season 4, showing a darker side to the MomTok creator.
He continued, “People involved in making Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette had no idea what they were about to watch on season 4. That this was an entire season about a woman who was having mental health struggles that was in this very toxic situation.”
In the season 4 finale of SLOMW, Taylor seemed hurt when she learned Dakota might have moved on with a close friend of Miranda Hope’s. Still, she reunited with him the night before she had to leave to film The Bachelorette.
“Dakota knew what this would do. He’s not fucking stupid,” she said during a season 4 confessional before opening up about going on the reality dating show.
“There’s a part of me that even wonders if I’m capable of doing this, given the recent events,” she said. “And then there’s another part of me that’s like, ‘Well, you already said you’re going to do it, so you need to do it. So pull through.’ So kind of very chaotic in the head for sure, which is no secret to anybody at this point.”
Though ABC and Hulu are both distributors under the Walt Disney Company, Nick claims that the shows’ production teams are totally different, which is why The Bachelorette producers allegedly had “no idea” about The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’negative edits for Taylor.
“Another thing I don’t think people realize… You have Warner Bros. who produces The Bachelor, so they have a whole team of producers. That’s their entity,” he explained. “You have the production company that makes Secret Lives. Those are two completely different companies, completely motivations, completely different interests. They’re not aligned.”
He continued, “Disney is a distributor of The Bachelor. Disney is also the distributor of Secret Lives. They connect the dots. But those two production companies have completely different vested interests.”
All of this ^^^ is considerably interesting, since Nick claimed it was his idea to make Taylor The Bachelorette during a September episode of The Viall Files. At the time, he said, “Well, it’s happened. Taylor Frankie Paul is your next Bachelorette. You are welcome, Bachelor Nation. You are welcome, ABC.”
He insisted, “It was literally my idea three months ago. I gave them the idea. I am the source.”
It seems like he’s remaining tight-lipped on these claims until further notice.
