Bethenny Frankel believes the “Bachelorette” contestants thinking about suing ABC over Taylor Frankie Paul’s canceled season “have a case” and that the network is now “f–ked.”
The former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star took to Instagram Saturday to share her thoughts about the ongoing drama and possible lawsuit.
“So word on the street is that five contestants from ‘The Bachelorette’ want to sue, and something painfully obvious dawned on me,” Frankel, 55, began before noting that her own “dating membership community” has “let people go” for much less than “domestic violence.”
“That’s insane!” she continued. “That’s insane that a show that is predicated on finding someone, their life partner, and the ultimate, biggest love connection on the biggest platform would literally cast someone who has a problematic past.”
After acknowledging that “everyone can reconcile and change,” Frankel argued that the contestants “do have a case” because they “went on to the show to find love” and ABC “can’t have it both ways.”
“The show can’t be just for entertainment purposes like it’s ‘The Hills’ and the sign is coming down, and have everyone think that it is really about finding true love,” the Skinnygirl founder charged.
“They are kind of f–ked, because there’s no way that the most high-profile matchmakers on the globe would cast someone like that and set those people up to meet that person,” she concluded. “That’s f–ked.”
Five of the 22 “Bachelorette” contestants threatened to sue ABC after the network canceled Paul’s season of the reality dating show just three days before it was set to premiere.
ABC announced the decision shortly after TMZ released a shocking video from 2023 that showed the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star throwing chairs at her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen during a domestic violence incident.
Paul, 31, was arrested for the incident, but the charges were ultimately dropped.
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” the network told Page Six in a statement Thursday.
Paul’s suitors reportedly feel that Warner Bros. Discovery, which produced the canceled “Bachelorette” season, fostered an unsafe work environment by letting Paul interact with them despite her controversial history.
However, lawyer Ashlee Difuntorum suggested that it would be an “uphill battle” for the five contestants to sue Warner Bros. Discovery or ABC.
“I haven’t seen the contracts here, but typically, the contract is with the production company and includes some sort of language stating that the production company and ABC can decide to do what they want with the footage — including not releasing it at all,” Difuntorum told Page Six.
“But without it airing, they have obviously missed out on other financial benefits that they might have otherwise received,” Difuntorum also acknowledged.
Another attorney, Daniel J. Ain, agreed that the contestants won’t be able to “sue” the two parties “successfully.”
“Every single contestant contract likely states that ABC has no obligation to use the contestant’s appearance in the show or to even broadcast the show,” Ain told Page Six. “Contestants will also have explicitly released any claims they might have.”
Frankel previously trashed ABC for casting Paul as this season’s “Bachelorette” in the first place.
“They knew about her domestic violence past, and apparently they cast her as the first non-Bachelor nation person, and they wanted the controversy and the redemption, so now they’re re-trading on that because the video was made public,” she said in another Instagram video last week.
“I mean, a picture’s worth a thousand words, and audio’s worth a thousand words, but if someone was already involved in domestic violence, why would they cast her?” Frankel added.
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