Taylor Frankie Paul, best known as a breakout star of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and a popular figure on MomTok, has officially been announced as the new lead for Season 22 of ABC’s The Bachelorette.
Paul, a single mother of three, has already offered audiences a candid glimpse into her personal life through Mormon Wives. In Season 2, viewers watched her attempt to navigate a relationship with Dakota Mortensen, the father of her youngest child, Ever. The couple later split, a development she confirmed in May shortly after the season premiered. Their breakup is expected to be revisited in Mormon Wives Season 3, which launches on November 13.
According to ABC, Paul enters her new role with a mission to lead with “humor, resilience and a fearless openness” and hopes to inspire others to “embrace life’s chaos and own their story.”
Her casting marks a first for the franchise: Paul is the only woman to lead The Bachelorette without any prior involvement in the Bachelor universe. ABC has followed a similar path once before, when Matt James was selected as The Bachelor for Season 25 without prior franchise ties. Paul also joins fellow Mormon Wives stars Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt, who will compete in Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars this fall.
The new season of The Bachelorette is set to premiere in early 2026, taking the place of The Bachelor. ABC skipped airing Bachelor in Paradise in 2024 to make room for The Golden Bachelorette, but the network plans to rotate between franchise installments going forward. Following The Bachelorette, another season of Paradise is expected to air.
Though ABC renewed The Bachelor for a 30th season in June, its return is not anticipated until 2027 to coincide with the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Scott Teti, showrunner of Bachelor in Paradise, has been tapped as executive producer of The Bachelorette. The series continues to be produced by Warner Horizon Unscripted Television.
Meanwhile, The Golden Bachelor will return for its second season on September 24, keeping ABC’s reality dating lineup in rotation as the network experiments with its growing slate of franchise spinoffs.
Source: Deadline