By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — As a culture, we are nosy.
That’s why tabloid culture — both in its grocery store checkout aisle and online forms —thrives, especially when it involves celebrities behaving badly.
But it’s one thing to read about an incident and another to see it.
An incident with Justin Timberlake already became a meme after the pop star reportedly talked about his “world tour” after being arrested for driving while intoxicated back in June 2024. The release late Friday of bodycam footage from the Sag Harbor Police Department of the arrest, and attendant failed sobriety test, took that to a whole new level, launching a new cycle of scrutiny of the star and the whims of celebrity.
But the person to most recently learn the full power of video is Taylor Frankie Paul, the reality star who had been poised to headline the new season of “The Bachelorette” until video of a well-known incident made its way to the ether. She became the latest to learn a lesson now known by everyone from music moguls to sports stars: Explaining away a controversy becomes the steepest of uphill battles once the public sees something with their own eyes.
A not-so-secret life of a Mormon wife
Paul was days away from celebrating her “Bachelorette” debut when TMZ published video of a violent 2023 incident involving her and former boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
The video, with shaky angles and bad lighting, shows Paul appearing to kick Mortensen and forcefully grab his head. At one point, she throws what appears to be a barstool at him and is also seen moving to strike him with another. At another, a child can be heard crying in the background.
A representative for Paul said in a statement that the video “conveniently omits context.”
For those who knew Paul’s name before it started trending the day of the video’s release, the incident, which led to her arrest, was likely well known because it had been a major storyline in the first season of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the other reality show in which she appears. Body cam footage was even included in the first episode.
Paul has also talked pretty openly about it over the years.
During an appearance to promote her show on “The Viall Files” podcast — hosted by “Bachelor” Season 21 star Nick Viall and his wife Natalie Joy — Paul explained that she believed the 2023 fight was the result of “a build up.”
She told the hosts how she had had an ectopic pregnancy followed by a chemical one. “Obviously I don’t want to blame hormones, but I will put that into account,” she said. “Like, I am pretty whack.”
Paul said she had been drinking that night, which angered Mortensen. She was so worked up, Paul said, that she didn’t even stop when she realized her daughter was present.
“I remember, like, throwing things and I don’t know my daughter’s on the couch,” Paul said during the podcast.
“I’m, like, so gone that I don’t care,” she said during her podcast appearance. “And I throw another chair.”
The previous year Paul had also taken to TikTok to discuss the incident.
As much as I wish that night had went differently, I felt like hitting rock bottom actually helped me in some ways,” she said at the time. “Made me seek help that I wasn’t getting at the time.”
She was a bit more reflective in 2025 during an Read more