"The View"'s Joy Behar says new Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul is looking for 'baby daddy number 3,' has 'baggage' Mekishana PierreSeptember 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM 11 Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty; Craig Barritt/Getty Joy Behar; Taylor Frankie Paul The View hosts have a few questions about the next B...
- - "The View"'s Joy Behar says new Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul is looking for 'baby daddy number 3,' has 'baggage'
Mekishana PierreSeptember 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM
11
Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty; Craig Barritt/Getty
Joy Behar; Taylor Frankie Paul
The View hosts have a few questions about the next Bachelorette.
Taylor Frankie Paul, the current star of Hulu's Emmy-nominated reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, was recently announced as the leading lady for The Bachelorette's 22nd season — a decision that raised a few eyebrows for several reasons, including the fact that Paul has a bit of a checkered past in reality TV and on social media.
Michael Kirchoff/disney
Taylor Frankie Paul, the new Bachelorette
During Friday's pre-taped episode of the hit daytime talk show, cohost Joy Behar wondered aloud how contestants would handle that past as she joins the long-running reality dating show.
"She has three kids and two baby daddies, so will these bachelors line up to be baby daddy number three?" Behar asked, earning some groans from the audience.
"Isn't that the whole point of the show?" she responded. "To find your lover and get married? Okay, well she's got a little bit of baggage."
Paul is a single mother of three and a founding member of #MomTok, a group of Utah-based Mormon mothers and influencers who rose to social-media prominence with their choreographed TikTok videos. In May 2022, she created a social media scandal when she went live on TikTok and announced that she was divorcing her then-husband, Tate Paul, in part because they had been engaging in "soft swinging" with other Mormon couples.
The bombshell caused such a furor that it led Hulu to cast Paul and the other #MomTokers — Jen Affleck, Demi Engemann, Whitney Leavitt, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Jessi Ngatikaura, and Layla Taylor — in their own reality series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which premiered in 2024. The first two seasons chronicled Paul's tumultuous relationship with her new boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares a son. The two split in January of this year.
Disney/Fred Hayes
Dakota Mortensen and Taylor Frankie Paul on 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives'
But according to ABC's release, "the 31-year-old Utah native is ready to trade headline-making heartbreak for hometown dates as she begins making her mark on Bachelor Nation."
"I was very conflicted about this," Behar's cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin noted on The View, adding that the show's decision to cast outside the Bachelor franchise caused an uproar with her own mother.
Paul has no history with the Bachelor franchise, but Mormon Wives airs on Hulu, which, like ABC, is owned by Disney. And, as Entertainment Weekly's Kristen Baldwin noted when reporting on Paul's casting, the company seems to be in its "synergy era."
Griffin tread carefully as she spoke of Paul's "colorful past," likely referring to her February 2023 domestic violence arrest.
In August of that year, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, with her other charges getting dismissed. Per the outlet, the assault reportedly involved Paul throwing her phone and "heavy metal chairs" at Mortensen, her then-boyfriend, in the presence of her two children. One child was allegedly struck in the head by an object she threw. The incident was featured in and discussed throughout the first season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
In a TikTok following her outburst Paul said, "As much as I wish that night had went differently, I felt like hitting rock bottom actually helped me in some ways. Made me seek help that I wasn't getting at the time."
She also addressed the incident in a September 2025 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, calling it the hardest time of her life.
"I never really even think about me in that situation. Obviously, it's my kids because they were involved, they were in the house," she said. "But in that moment that we see on screen, I see a lot of pain. And I didn't have any tools at that time, so I was very lost."
Disney/Fred Hayes
Mayci Neeley and Taylor Frankie Paul on 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives'
Griffin told the audience that Paul has had "a pretty challenging life" and added that she doesn't judge women for having kids with different men. "You get a glimpse into her family if you've watched Mormon Wives. It's tough," she said. "They navigate a very restrictive religion. She stepped out of the faith and now is trying to find herself."
However, Griffin added, "What I do love about her and why I think she'll be excellent [is] she's super authentic and she's extremely chaotic, and those are both great for reality TV."
Sunny Hostin wondered how Paul would navigate the Fantasy Suites during her time on The Bachelorette as a Mormon, to which her cohosts quipped it shouldn't be a problem considering how her soft swinging proved she wasn't a practicing one.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Those unfamiliar with the #MomTok insanity will have several months to get up to speed, as Paul's season of The Bachelorette will not premiere until 2026. ABC's announcement did not state whether the network will also air a season of The Bachelor — which was renewed for season 30 in June and normally premieres in January — next year.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Astro Blog
Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities