The latest season of The Bachelorette was canceled last week following the release of disturbing video footage of the season’s star. But one of the contestants believes that Taylor Frankie Paul has already been forgiven for her behavior in the video.
Brad Ledford may know a thing or two about forgiveness, as the Bachelorette contestant was behind the wheel during the crash that left former Congressman Madison Cawthorn paralyzed. Ledford weighed in on the Bachelorette controversy on Monday, revealing his thoughts about the canceled season in which he would have appeared as one of 22 men competing for the affection of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul.
“Obviously a lot of questions about it,” he said in a video posted to Instagram Stories. “I will say that I could care less about a TV show not airing right now. There’s real kids involved, real family involved, and I want the best for them. I want the best for Taylor’s kids. I want the best for Taylor.”
Paul was the subject of a video from 2023 that was published by TMZ on Thursday, which showed her as the aggressor in a violent confrontation with her ex, Dakota Mortensen, while the couple’s child was in the room. Paul is seen grabbing and throwing metal stools at Mortensen, while the child’s cries are heard in the background. ABC pulled the plug on The Bachelorette even though it was set to air just three days later on Sunday.
Ledford added on Monday, “God’s love has no bounds. It knows no boundaries. He’s forgiven me for many things, and he’s already forgiven Taylor. I want Taylor to find that peace and I want her kids to have that peace in the future more than anything, and I think they can, you know, it’s there for them if they want it.”
Ledford was 17 years old in 2014 when he fell asleep behind the wheel while driving his then 18-year-old friend, former Republican North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn, and crashed into a concrete barricade. Cawthorn was partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn alleged that Ledford, “my brother... my best friend, he leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb.”
In 2021, Ledford told The Washington Post that Cawthorn’s claim was false. “It hurt very badly that he would say something as false as that,” he told the publication at the time. “That is not at all what happened. I pulled him out of the car the second that I was able to get out of the car.”
