{"id":541393,"date":"2026-03-24T01:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541393\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T01:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:18:11","slug":"bachelorette-suitor-was-driver-in-crash-that-paralyzed-madison-cawthorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541393\/","title":{"rendered":"Bachelorette Suitor Was Driver in Crash That Paralyzed Madison Cawthorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTaylor Frankie Paul<\/a> might be at the center of The Bachelorette<\/a> drama for now, but one of her suitors had his own drama a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrad Ledford, a 29-year-old cowboy and entrepreneur from Newport Beach, California, was one of 22 men vying for Paul\u2019s heart<\/a> on her season of the ABC reality dating series. However, viewers are unlikely to witness how their story unfolded as the network pulled the season <\/a>days before its premiere following\u00a0reports\u00a0<\/a>of an alleged domestic violence incident involving the show\u2019s lead and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares a son.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a new video posted on his Instagram Story Monday, Ledford said he\u2019s \u201cnot gonna dive into my full opinion on the whole Bachelorette situation,\u201d but that he knows God has \u201calready forgiven Taylor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNot gonna dive into my full opinion on the whole Bachelorette situation. Obviously a lot of questions about it. I will say that I could care less about a TV show not airing right now. There\u2019s real kids involved, real family involved, and I want the best for them. I want the best for Taylor\u2019s kids. I want the best for Taylor,\u201d he added. \u201cGod\u2019s love has no bounds. It knows no boundaries. He\u2019s forgiven me for many things, and he\u2019s already forgiven Taylor. I want Taylor to find that piece and I want her kids to have that peace in the future more than anything, and I think they can, you know, it\u2019s there for them if they want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBachelorette fans got a taste of who Ledford is when the cast was revealed last month. His bio read, \u201cLassoing for love! If Taylor is searching for a handsome California cowboy, she won\u2019t have to look any further than Brad. His best friend is his horse, Gus, whom he partners with on all his cowboy jobs. When he\u2019s not on the ranch, Brad enjoys swing dancing, hanging at the beach and listening to Adele. This fearless romantic is ready to start a family and prides himself on being a generous, loving partner. We can\u2019t wait to see if he can giddy up his way into our Bachelorette\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s actually more to Ledford\u2019s backstory. When he was 17 years old, he was involved in the 2014 car crash that paralyzed former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who was 18 years old at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 2017 lawsuit deposition, Ledford said he and Cawthorn were headed back to North Carolina after a spring break trip in Florida when Ledford fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the car into a concrete construction barrier. At the time of the accident, Ledford said Cawthorn had his feet propped up on the dashboard.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Bachelorette contestant also said in his deposition that after he exited the vehicle through a window, he \u201cunbuckled Madison and proceeded to pull him out while a bystander came in and helped me,\u201d The Washington Post<\/a> previously reported.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut during a 2017 chapel speech, Cawthorn detailed a different account of the crash that left him partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair. \u201cHe was my brother, my best friend. And he leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb. He runs to safety deep in the woods and just leaves me in a burning car as the flames start to lick my legs and curl up and burn my left side,\u201d the former congressman said, adding that he was \u201cdeclared dead on the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLedford later told The Washington Post that Cawthorn\u2019s statements were \u201cfalse.\u201d He said, \u201cIt hurt very badly that he would say something as false as that. That is not at all what happened. I pulled him out of the car the second that I was able to get out of the car.\u201d Accident records from the Florida Highway Patrol also listed Cawthorn as incapacitated and in critical condition after the crash, but he was not declared dead.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair ended up reconciling a few years later, and Ledford said that once they reconnected, Cawthorn told him \u201cthat he didn\u2019t believe those things anymore\u201d regarding the crash claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tCawthorn served in Congress from 2021 to 2023, but lost his reelection bid in the 2022 Republican primary.<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere in his video shared on social media Monday, Ledford said he feels \u201cABC made the right decision for right now\u201d to shelve season 22 of The Bachelorette.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the biggest bummer is just that some of these guys on the show were incredible,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019ve got incredible stories, really good testimonies, some stuff that I think a lot of America could benefit from hearing. And I hope that y\u2019all do get to hear that in some way, shape or form. Maybe it\u2019s on their own posts and their own platforms or it\u2019s on a show that they\u2019re on in the future or something, but there\u2019s some incredible guys on the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe network ultimately decided<\/a>\u00a0to pull the season after TMZ\u00a0also released a video\u00a0<\/a>of what led to Paul\u2019s arrest in 2023 for another domestic violence incident involving Mortensen. She pled guilty to aggravated assault at the time and the incident was detailed on Paul\u2019s other reality series, Hulu\u2019s\u00a0The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson told\u00a0THR last week, \u201cIn light of the\u00a0newly released video\u00a0that surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of\u00a0The Bachelorette\u00a0at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Frankie Paul might be at the center of The Bachelorette drama for now, but one of her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,90715,64613,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-541393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-taylor-frankie-paul","10":"tag-the-bachelorette","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541393","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=541393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}