Taylor Frankie Paul Is Named as New Bachelorette—After Mormon Star Revealed She Was Moving To Get a ‘Fresh Start’

"The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" star Taylor Frankie Paul has been named as the Season 22 star of "The Bachelorette"—months after revealing that she was moving out of her Utah home in order to get a "fresh start."

The 31-year-old mom of three's role at the center of the hit ABC dating show was announced by "Call Her Daddy" podcast host Alex Cooper on Sept. 10, when Paul sat down with her for an interview about her new venture.

"You are on 'Call Her Daddy' so we can officially announce that you are this season's Bachelorette. How are you feeling?" the host asked the TV personality.

"Surreal. It has not hit me right now in this moment. I'm just thinking about it, and it's not real. And it's not going to be until I think the limo is pulling up, you know? And meeting the people," Paul confessed.

Paul added that she is feeling extremely "nervous" heading into the new season of the dating show.

"How did I get here? In my head I'm like, 'How is this happening?' That's my answer," she went on.

Paul explained that the idea of her being on the show began as a joke three years ago when she posted about it on TikTok; however, she always assumed it was "unattainable."

"I don't know if that got their attention ... It was mainly a joke to me ... Then we had a meeting. I still didn't believe it until I got the invitation, 'Will you be our Bachelorette?' Same reaction, shaking, pacing back and forth. There's no way, no way," she revealed.

The reality TV mogul admitted that she has had some reservations about becoming the Bachelorette—not least the added pressure on her schedule, confirming that she will continue to film "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" despite adding another show to her roster.

"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 asked herself when committing to "The Bachelorette."

"But then I'm also thinking on the side, 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, but also they have their husbands, so for me I'm like, is this possible for me to do as a single mom? Can I make it work realistically no matter how much I want this?

"And 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," she said.

Paul noted that although the announcement was "shocking" to her family, they are all supporting her journey and are "excited."

She added that her "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" costars have been nothing but "positive" about the news.

"I think most of them are going to be happy for me and support me. I can't speak for everyone and what they actually truly think, you know never really know. But I think we're all kind of doing our own thing so everyone is getting their own shots, it's not just about her her her," she said.

Cooper pressed Paul for more answers and asked the TV star is thinks there will be any "side group chats" about Paul being on the show.

"I can't say, I don't know ... I guess we'll see on whatever season we'll be on," she added.

The shock announcement about her new journey to find love comes three months after she confessed that she was looking to move out of her Utah home following her heartbreaking split rom Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares a baby son.

Paul, who welcomed son Ever True, 1, with Mortensen in March 2024, announced the news by sharing an Instagram video in which she could be seen breaking down in tears while packing up her belongings alongside her baby boy.

"Helping me pack for somewhere new," Paul wrote alongside the clip, which showed Ever keeping his mom company as she unloaded a closet in her home.

"At least I get an angel out of it," she added, alluding to her bitter split from Mortensen, whom she began dating in 2022, shortly after her first marriage ended due to her involvement in a "soft-swinging scandal" that Paul exposed on her TikTok page.

Paul's involvement in—and ultimate exposure of—the "soft-swinging" that she claims took place among a circle of friends in Utah caused such a frenzy of speculation that it led to the influencer and her friends landing their own Hulu series, "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," which premiered its second season in May.

The show focuses on a group of Mormon women who reside in Utah, many of whom were involved in the popular #MomTok trend on TikTok, which Paul claims to have started.

It's unclear whether she is now set to turn her back on her Utah community once and for all by moving to a new city and state—or she is simply moving to a new home to seek her "fresh start."

Despite her obvious upset over the end of her three-year romance with Mortensen, Paul wrote in her caption that she would endure the heartbreak again and again if it meant that she'd become a mother to Ever, who is the younger sibling to her other two kids with her ex-husband.

"If it took all this pain to just get him, I’d do it again," she shared.

Paul then clarified that she wasn't embarrassed to share her heartbreak with her 1.4 million-plus followers.

“I have no shame. If you can post happiness, you can post sadness too," she wrote. "[I am] processing pain and, yes, I want a fresh start.”

Her relocation news comes after her high-profile split from Mortensen, with whom she was embroiled in a tumultuous on-again, off-again romance that had more than its fair share of scandalous moments—not least when Paul was arrested after allegedly throwing a chair at her partner during a domestic dispute.

Paul, who reached a plea deal with prosecutors over the incident, faced furious backlash online after it was revealed in a police report that the chair—which she had aimed at Mortensen—had accidentally struck her then-5-year-old daughter, Indy, whom she shares with her ex, Tate Paul.

Her relationship with Mortensen then suffered another blow when people online claimed that he had been unfaithful to the Mormon mom and had even impregnated another woman while still seeing Taylor Frankie Paul.

Mortensen fiercely denied the rumors via a TikTok video shared on May 29, noting that he hadn't been intimate with anyone since Paul.

"No babies on the way. I am not having a kid with anybody. I haven’t slept with anyone since I have dated Taylor until now. If anybody wants to try to prove that wrong, by all means be my guest.

"I just wanted to clear the air because there’s a few girls out here that said they are even pregnant with my child. Lots of crazy stuff but anyways, no baby coming," he clarified.

Paul also shared her thoughts on the matter: "A girl claiming to be having his baby as I’m putting myself in timeout for actually being his bm [baby mama]. I think it’s a joke, I sure hope so."

The influencer also spoke about her former beau's cheating scandal in her hit Hulu show, telling viewers, "Right after Ever was born, Dakota and I were living together and in bliss with our new baby, and I was even considering engagement, and then I learned that he was lying this entire time.”

Paul currently lives in Daper, UT, with her children, and it is unclear what city she will be going to next; however, the ABC series is filmed in California.

She previously told Us Weekly that she and Mortensen were working on navigating co-parenting in a mature manner.

“We’ve obviously come a long way to navigate [co-parenting],” Paul, who also shares son Ocean, 4, with her ex-husband.

She added, "It’s different from my first husband because there’s obviously a friendship there. We adjusted. Whereas [with] Dakota, everything’s fresh. It’s something that we necessarily didn’t want to do but needed to separate.

"So it’s an adjustment, and we’ve had to learn through the obstacles of this experience to do what’s best for our son.

"Of course when things are heightened, you’re breaking up, and it’s not something you wanted, and you just had a baby. It was not the prettiest experience, but currently we’ve come a long way.”