{"id":287581,"date":"2025-11-12T18:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287581\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T18:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:38:16","slug":"mormon-wives-stars-react-to-taylor-frankie-paul-as-bachelorette-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287581\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mormon Wives’ Stars React to Taylor Frankie Paul as Bachelorette: EXCLUSIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

When news broke that Taylor Frankie Paul would be the next star of “The Bachelorette,”<\/a> some were surprised to see the dating series name a newcomer as lead of the show for the first time. But Paul’s “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u201c co-star Jen Affleck wasn’t one of them.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been saying this for a minute now. In fact, I literally mentioned this to Taylor, I want to say even like last year. I was like, ‘What if you were the next Bachelorette?'” Affleck tells TODAY.com during a recent video call. <\/p>\n

Affleck, who has had a front row seat to Paul’s complicated relationship history<\/a> in recent years, says she’s always thought her co-star would bring a fresh perspective to “The Bachelorette,” which has been airing since 2003.<\/p>\n

“Especially because I feel like ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘Bachelorette’ have been slowly dying, like the franchise itself has been dying,” Affleck says.<\/p>\n

\"ABC'sABC’s “The Bachelorette\u201d stars Taylor Frankie Paul.Michael Kirchoff \/ Disney<\/p>\n

The reality star put her producer cap on and imagined what a reimagined “Bachelorette” could look like if her friend was the star. <\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘If Taylor went on there, I think she would save the franchise, and that\u2019s exactly what happened. I think I manifested it for her,” Affleck says.<\/p>\n

Affleck and Paul’s co-star Jessi Ngatikaura says the entire #MomTok team is “so excited” for Paul to embark on her “Bachelorette” journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s going to bring such a unique twist to the show. It\u2019s going to be like Taylor\u2019s version of \u2018The Bachelorette,\u2019 and we\u2019re so excited to watch her and cheer her on,” she says.<\/p>\n

Typically, “Bachelorette” leads are chosen from a prior season of “The Bachelor.” Paul’s casting marks a first for the ABC show.<\/p>\n

Before Paul began filming the dating series, Ngatikaura had the opportunity to bestow some advice on her friend.<\/p>\n

“I was kind of on the journey with her leading up to her leaving. She hadn\u2019t really watched the show, and I grew up watching it. So I feel like I gave her a lot of advice just from being a viewer on what to expect,” she says. <\/p>\n

Paul’s on-and-off relationship with Dakota Mortensen has been a focal point in the first two seasons of \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,\u201d which returns for Season 3 on Nov. 13.<\/p>\n

After calling it quits with Mortensen, Paul was ready to move on when she began filming “The Bachelorette,” Ngatikaura says.<\/p>\n

“She went into it just excited to have a fresh start and to just see that there are other options out there besides Dakota. I think she needed to get out of that bubble and just open up her world, so I\u2019m excited to see what happens.”<\/p>\n

Paul, who was previously married to Tate Paul, went public with her relationship with Mortensen in 2022 amid a soft swinging scandal that rocked the #MomTok community. <\/p>\n

In a TikTok Live<\/a> video, Paul admitted that she and her ex-husband had engaged in soft swinging with other members of the group. The show’s other cast members denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Paul later introduced her followers to Mortensen as the man she \u201ccheated with\u201d<\/a> during the soft swinging scandal. The couple’s son, Ever, was born in 2024.<\/p>\n

Throughout their relationship, Paul and Mortensen navigated cheating rumors and what some members of Paul’s family described as a volatile communication style.<\/p>\n

In the Season 2 reunion special, Paul said she and Mortensen had broken up and were working on themselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When news broke that Taylor Frankie Paul would be the next star of “The Bachelorette,” some were surprised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-287581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}