Taylor Frankie Paul Will Be The New Bachelorette In Surprise Casting

The Bachelorette is breaking major Bachelor Nation tradition with Season 22. For the first time, the woman handing out roses is not someone who was previously on The Bachelor. But that doesn’t mean she’s entering the mansion without any reality TV experience. Quite the contrary — this season’s leading lady will be Taylor Frankie Paul, whose love life has been thoroughly explored on two seasons of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

In all previous 21 seasons of The Bachelorette, the star had been plucked from a prior season of The Bachelor. However, ABC changed things up this time around by broadening its pool to include its sister streaming service Hulu.

Paul’s casting comes a little over three months after the second season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives confirmed that she had ended her relationship with Dakota Mortensen. Shortly after the season aired, Paul posted a TikTok jokingly auditioning for The Bachelorette. During her Sept. 10 appearance on Call Her Daddy, where she announced her new role, Paul admitted she isn’t sure if the tongue-in-cheek TikTok played a part in her casting.

“I don't know if that got their attention,” Paul said. “It was mainly a joke to me.”

The mother of three went on to describe her initial hesitation in accepting the reality TV gig amidst her already hectic life. “How do I make this work? I'm a co-parent, I have two baby daddies not one, so I'm dealing with two different people, my children, my home base is here. Can I travel that long? Can I be gone that long?" Paul said.

She finally made the decision to go for it by drawing inspo from her fellow Mormon Wives stars who were also filming other shows. "The other two moms that are in my group [Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt] are doing Dancing with the Stars and they brought their family out,” Paul said. “I was like, I can, if you want to you can, and it comes down to that. So I was just like, ‘I will make it work. I can ask for help more.’”

ABC has not announced an exact date for when The Bachelorette Season 22 will begin airing, but it’s confirmed to be coming in 2026.