Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay Says "Bachelor" Franchise Is &x27;Completely Destroyed&x27; by Taylor Frankie Paul Scandal Julia MooreFri, March 20, 2026 at 6:43 PM UTC 0 Rachel Lindsay (left); Taylor Frankie Paul (right)Credit: Spotify; Taylor Hill/WireImage On Thursday, March 19, ABC pulled the upcoming season of The Bachelorette starring Taylor Frankie Paul just three days before it was set to premiere Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay was recording a podcast episode when the cancellation news hit and reacted in real time The cancellation came hours after footage from 2023 was released ...
Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay Says "Bachelor" Franchise Is 'Completely Destroyed' by Taylor Frankie Paul Scandal
Julia MooreFri, March 20, 2026 at 6:43 PM UTC
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Rachel Lindsay (left); Taylor Frankie Paul (right)Credit: Spotify; Taylor Hill/WireImage -
On Thursday, March 19, ABC pulled the upcoming season of The Bachelorette starring Taylor Frankie Paul just three days before it was set to premiere
Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay was recording a podcast episode when the cancellation news hit and reacted in real time
The cancellation came hours after footage from 2023 was released of Paul throwing chairs at her ex, Dakota Mortensen, while a child was nearby
Rachel Lindsay thinks the Bachelor franchise can't recover from the Taylor Frankie Paul scandal.
Lindsay, the season 13 Bachelorette, was recording a podcast episode on Thursday, March 19, when the news that Paul's season of The Bachelorette had been pulled by ABC.
She reacted in real time on the episode of the Bachelor Party podcast, which was released on March 20, and shared her candid thoughts on whether the TV franchise can move forward.
"I think it's over," she said of the franchise's future. "I was trying to think of a scenario where it could be different, because this isn't just, 'Oh, we put it all on a person. This person did this.' This is the system that allowed this to happen."
"The name Bachelorette, Bachelor is tainted at this point," Lindsay, 40, said. "How do you move forward past that? You can't."
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ABC's cancellation of Paul's season of The Bachelorette just three days before it was slated to premiere came after TMZ published footage from 2023 that showed Paul throwing chairs at her ex, Dakota Mortensen, while a child was nearby.
In a statement, a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson said, "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."
Three days prior, a source told PEOPLE that filming on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 5 was paused due to "some pretty serious stuff happening" in Paul's life "regarding her past."
A spokesperson for Utah's Draper City Police Department then confirmed that there is an open "domestic assault investigation" regarding Paul, 31, and Mortensen, 33, stemming from a February 2026 incident. The couple share 2-year-old son Ever. Paul also has daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5½, with ex-husband Tate Paul.
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Taylor Frankie Paul for "The Bachelorette"Credit: Disney/Sami Drasin
On the Bachelor Party podcast, Lindsay said that "people were already mad" when Paul was first announced as the new lead in September 2025, and that "traditional Bachelor viewers were already upset by this decision."
"So how do you trust this name — Bachelor, Bachelorette — that has meant something to people, moving forward? You don't," she said. "You already questioned it when you moved Taylor Frankie Paul over [from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives]. Now it is completely destroyed. Like, why did you guys think this was okay? That's the question that needs to be answered. We're never gonna get that from Taylor at this point."
Lindsay said she "cannot see a world where [the show] comes back," before acknowledging the real-life consequences of what that would mean for the hundreds of people employed by ABC.
"I think you also have to acknowledge that so many people are about to lose their jobs, and that's the irresponsible part too, with the network," she said. "In an industry right now where it is slim pickings when it comes to new shows and people even leaving the positions that they have, the jobs ... do not exist."
"We just have to acknowledge — whoever decided to look past these issues or a video or a background [check], and know that this could possibly come out and be detrimental to the franchise, whether it was one person, multiple people — now, it's a bigger loss. It's not just that you don't get your season [to] air. It's that people are going to be unemployed."
Bachelor in Paradise is "the only show that could come back," she said, but even that doesn't seem too likely. "I don't even see a Paradise coming back," she admitted.
Lindsay was one of 18 former Bachelorettes who reunited to help launch Paul's season as part of the ABC preview special The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose that aired on March 15 after the Oscars.
Following the cancellation of her season of The Bachelorette, a spokesperson for Paul told PEOPLE that she is "very grateful for ABC's support as she prioritizes her family's safety and security," and that she is "finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm." The rep alleged that Paul has had "years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation."
Mortensen, who filed for a protective order against Paul on March 19, also spoke out after Paul's statement. "As anyone who has seen the video will understand, this is a deeply upsetting situation," he said in a statement. "I am, unfortunately, used to these baseless claims about me and our relationship, which I categorically deny. I am focusing on our son and his safety, and hope that Taylor will do the same."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 20, 2026 at 03:01PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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