There’s a new Bachelorette in town — and we’ve met her before.
Taylor Frankie Paul, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star, will be the lead on Season 22 of “The Bachelorette.” She broke the news herself Wednesday on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
ABC confirmed the news in a statement that touted Paul for “igniting ‘MomTok’ and going viral for pulling back the curtain on Salt Lake’s soft-swinging scene.” Paul will return to “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” for Season 3 in November, and the next season of “The Bachelorette” will premiere in 2026.
“To be honest, surreal,” Paul said when asked about the news by “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper. “It has not hit me right now in this moment. … I’m like, how is this happening? That’s my answer.”
Notably, Paul, 31, has not appeared in the “Bachelor” franchise before, a change from the usual practice of casting contestants from previous seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” as leads. But the pick offers some synergy, as “Bachelorette” broadcaster ABC and “Mormon Wives” streamer Hulu are both owned by Disney. (Two of her current castmates are headed to “Dancing With the Stars,” also on ABC.)
Asked by Cooper how the casting choice came about, Paul explained that she’d made a TikTok video on a lark a few years ago, when her relationship “wasn’t working out.”
“I made a funny video,” she said, with the message, “I’m single.”
“It was like a Lindsay Lohan TikTok,” she said, but it somehow caught people’s attention. “I didn’t believe it until I got the invitation,” she said.
Still, Paul said, she was not immediately sure it would be manageable.
The mother-of-three said she wondered: “How do I make this work? I’m a co-parent, I have two baby daddies. … Can I travel that long? Can I be gone that long?”
And then she realized she could do it: “I was just like, I will make it work. If I want to, I can … I can ask for help.”
Paul became known as an influencer in the #MomTok community, a group of women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sharing their lives on TikTok. She made news when she announced, in 2022, that she had “stepped out” of an agreement with her husband in terms of relationships with other couples involving “soft-swinging” (a form of partner-swapping,) and they were getting divorced.
The following year, Paul was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child, during a dispute with a boyfriend. She pleaded guilty in August 2023 to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault; the other charges were dismissed.
Paul told Cooper she didn’t know what it would be like dating several people at a time. She said she had asked some men, “How do people do it? … I’ve had flings, but this is different.”
Asked what her biggest adjustment would be, she replied: “All of it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.