The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Will Taylor Frankie Paul Still Get Paid??

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Ashley is hanging out with Trista Sutter at the iHeartRadio Music Awards and catching up on the latest news around The Bachelorette That Wasn’t: Taylor Frankie Paul. We find out who's claiming they DIDN'T leak the video footage TMZ got last week, and if TFP will ever get paid for her season. Plus, did you know Dakota was on reality TV before "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives"???See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You should know Think Spring playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcasts with IHeart Radio. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Almost Dayos podcast. Today we are at the IHeart Radio Music Awards in L.A. And that means that Trissa and I are saying next to each other on a couch while we talk about Taylor Faggy Paul.

Go figure. I mean, this is just never going to stop. I don't think so. There's headline. We could do an episode every day, I think. Multiple times today. Probably. Not even just once.

Yeah. So first, our producers asked us in a group message, something that I, oh, I don't want to admit it, but we'll do it. The question to you, me, Ben, and Bob was, would you guys watch the show if it did drop? Because we have rumors online that they're trying to do everything in their power to, in some way, tastefully drop this season. Yeah.

there's a lot of people out there that just want to binge on Hulu. Yep. And you and I both admitted that we would watch the season. Like, yeah, I was the first one to respond. I'm far more shameful about this. I don't care. I am who I am. I mean, please, they call me the fairy godmother for a reason.

So I'm going to watch everything that they put out. Like, it's where I met my husband. It's like, it doesn't matter if there's any negative, association. It's where I'm at my husband, I am always going to watch the show. Am I always going to like it? No, but that doesn't matter. I'm always going to watch it. You and I probably had a very similar response because you are so grateful for the show. I was sitting in bed with Jared last week and I was just feeling so weird Thursday when it was announced that they were no longer going forward at this time. Right. And I was like, Jared.

I just feel so heavy today. Like this could be like the crumbling, the ending of something in which if it weren't for the show, this bed that we're sitting in wouldn't have been paid for. You and I wouldn't be sitting in this bed together right now. Our kids wouldn't be upstairs. Like how. They wouldn't be alive. I know what I mean. Like nothing would exist.

Like our whole lives, we have no idea where it would be right now. Yeah. So just, yeah, I am like forever supportive of the franchise. And I'm also very proud to be from the franchise. Are you? Yeah. So I just, there was something, just watching it fall apart in some way further than it has been, like, it's been slowly like having, you know, cracks.

And then like to have the earthquake last week, just like really made me sad as a fan and, of course, as an alum. Totally agree. I can't imagine being in the eye of the storm. Like, we're kind of on the outskirts, you know? Like, this is why I feel like it's, I can only talk about this with, you. with you and I feel bad if it comes across. No, no.

I feel like it is, it's just heavy because Deanna and I did an episode when it came out that it was going to be canceled, quote unquote. And it's just really heavy and really sad. And it's because we have such positive memories of the show. Like truly, I am so grateful that I met my husband the way that I did in this crazy, crazy weird way. And like I said, am I going to like every episode? No, but I feel very maternal towards everyone who is on the show.

Everyone who followed after the first season, I'm very maternal towards. And that includes people who have really tough times, you know, and that includes Taylor. And it just makes me sad if it's going to be canceled that I don't get to like welcome anybody else to the sisterhood of The Bachelorette. and and cheer on any, like, root for any couples or just all of it. It's just, it's crazy. It's crazy. I never, ever, ever thought that this is how it would end.

I know. And hopefully it's not ending. Like, hopefully this is just a blip. Yeah. There's been so much chatter about what they should do in place during this time slot. Of course. I've heard a good, a good suggestion. Jared says it's uninterested.

realistic. I like to be very hopeful would be a dancing with the star season that they just throw together since it's more of a live show. But he's like much more goes into it. And then I've seen a lot of people talk about Mora from Love Island. Oh, I have her. I don't, I didn't watch it. But she's the one that was on traitors too. She was on traitors. Everybody loves her. Everybody wants her to find someone. She's already been like in this realm and then they could do a live season. They're saying. So it's like kind of document her journey more of like a doc you follow way, which would be really, really awesome. I also have heard, and this was just somebody sent it to me so I don't know where it came

from, but that they were going to re-air me and Ryan's season. Well, do you think you would get a lot of viewers that way? Because I'm pretty sure we could just go watch that on Apple. I don't know that you can. Oh, maybe not your season. Maybe your season is really archived. Right. Okay.

Sorry. I can watch my seasons on Apple. I am just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, but Ryan was like, oh, that's all I need.

You know, I'm trying to get away from this because he's, you know, a firefighter and he wants to be thought of in a serious way when he's at work.

And if that... Well, we saw that clip of you guys during the little after Oscar special. Yes. we saw you guys get like flustered and hot and bothered and it was so cute and also probably weird for your kids to see.

Oh my God. And the best story. You should actually bring Blake'sie down here because she's upstairs. I was watching it with Blake'sley. I'm like, oh, you have to see the part, you know, that they showed me and they showed me and dad. And she's sitting there and they show when he walks, you know, to me for the first time out of the limo, he goes, oh, you're ravishing.

And she goes, why did he say that? and then I was like, he had never said that word before in his life. And then I proceeded to tell her that he just kept walking. I was like, what's your name? You didn't even give me your name. Like, don't leave. That's so Cinderella of him, but reversed. I know.

And then the steamy hot tub portion comes on and she goes, ew. It was so funny. I would be deeply disturbed if I was. It was so funny. I was like, okay, that's valid. That's fair. I get it. I probably shouldn't have had you watch mom and dad make out in a hot tub, but it is what it is. Oh my gosh. You guys are so cute. And you're still so cute. And you're on the cover of People magazine this week, which is so cool. We'll talk about that in headlines. Yeah. Trista and I are going to do another episode on Bachelor headlines. But right now we're going to go through some Taylor Friggy

Paul headlines. I just, I have to laugh at like how many. many headlines one person can make. But let's get into the first one. Her salary supposedly was higher than most. She got in the low six figures for being the Bachelorette. And I hear that she will be getting her full pay. Yeah. And that's something in the contract that like, of course,

like even if your season doesn't air fully, you'll get fully paid. Yeah. Do you remember what you got paid? I didn't. Did you get paid at all? You're the first Bachelorette. That kind of makes sense, I guess.

No, I did not. But they paid my bills. Like they paid my rent. because I had just moved from Miami. I quit my job. I didn't have, you know, any funds coming in. So they were like, okay, we'll pay your rent. We'll pay for you to get your hair cut and colored

and for your gym membership and your groceries and all that kind of stuff. So they paid for my living expenses, but I didn't get like a salary. And obviously that changed. So people do get paid. And of course, Taylor Frankie Paul came with so many followers and stardom.

Of course they're going to pay her more. Yeah. Of course. So that doesn't make, that doesn't make me, you know, question. There's no question in that headline. Like it's, it is what it is. And she should have gotten paid more. I wonder what she gets paid for Secret Lives because I wonder.

Those shows also, like House Lives. I mean, like, I can't say much, but like, yeah. You're not doing it for the episode to episode salary. I'll tell you that. Yes. But I'm sure she still gets paid pretty well. And I'm sure that they renegotiated. They recently did renegotiate.

We saw in September going into season three, was it the season four contracts? Yeah. Is the season four contracts that they ended up getting the producer credit, which she was so awkward about talking about on Good Morning America. Yeah. So with a producer contract probably came with a much heftier salary. Yeah.

Moving on Taylor Frankie Paul's mom posts about times of hardship. amidst the domestic violence investigation. On Tuesday, this is just this past Tuesday. She said on her into stories, she posted a Bible passage about never giving up. And then she said, today, outside of reading some scriptures in a ladybug landing at a moment on top of me, in times of hardship, subtle revelations sometimes appear small.

Symbols can carry big meanings and remind us that we are not alone. And yeah, Ladybugs are like supposed to say like good luck and transformation and new beginnings. I believe in signs. How do you feel about the fact that Taylor was like all over social media last week? I mean, I literally couldn't open Instagram and not have... Because she was, like commenting under things. Oh, and true story.

Yeah. I felt like someone should have taken away her phone. Right. Like she should, she should not have been posting. You know, who am I to say, whatever? Do what you do what you're going to do. But I feel like there was just a lot. going on. And in those moments, it's better to just lay low. I saw this Instagram the other day

about her mom and how like oftentimes on secret lives, she'll like say, you're being stupid. You're being dumb. Oh, I did see that. And like that language can over time, especially when she's younger, like really do damage. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if your mom is telling you you're stupid. Yeah. Even if you're doing it like in a playful way, like, I can't believe you slept with him. That's such a stupid decision. Yeah. This is a little. Right. I agree. Oh, it's not playful. Our producer, Heather, is saying it's not playful,

and she's the real Secret Lives fan here. So, okay, then. Celebrate your pride with the station that's as bold, vibrant, and diverse as you are. I-Hart Pride, Canada. From dance anthems to pop icons and hits from 2SLGBTQ Plus Canadian artists. It's the soundtrack that keeps life loud and proud. Just ask your smart speaker to play IHart Pride Canada. Stream us on your phone or listen now at iHeartRadio.ca.

Come together, celebrate love. Pride. Feel it all year long. Let's go. With IHeart Pride Canada. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story.

This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice in so-ins, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfected. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Alespian and Michael Marantini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at Americopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor and this is It Girl. You may know me from my It Girl series I've done on the streets of New York over the years. Well, I've got good news. those interviews and many more to this podcast. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work with the women's shaping culture right now. As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated. So you have to work

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right, it's inheriting too much drama week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, I just inherited a fortune after losing my mom, and now my girlfriend's entire family is coming out of nowhere with their hands out. One sibling wants me to fund their whole lifestyle. Another vanished for four years and suddenly reappeared, and my girlfriend is already giving my money away. Hold on, Sophia. So the girl he wants to marry is already sending money out the door. And that's just the beginning. He makes a plan, sets up a trust, and finally thinks he has everything under control. Okay, so things work out then?

Let's just say the people he trusted the most are the ones who ended up shocking him the most. So does the money end up being worth going through all that? To find out, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now to a very interesting headline, how did TMZ get that video of Taylor Frankie Paul?

Because Utah police say, don't look at them. They literally said when TMZ initially shared, started all of this frenzy. How they obtained that video? We don't know. We didn't provide that. I don't think I ever thought the police department provided it to TMZ. I think we all think it's Dakota.

Should we say countdown three, two, one and say who? Duh. I mean, that is what I have been saying from the get-go. I mean, this stinks to high heaven all that it came from him. The timing. And I don't know if you saw the, the clip of the two Mormon wives, I think we're on Nick's podcast,

and they were talking about Dakota and how sketchy he is and how he can't let her have a moment. Yes, and they were like, it's not shocking that it came out when it did. Yeah, and we've talked about if they didn't sit on the season and they started airing it in the traditional January, you know, airing time, that he probably just would have done it then anyway. Totally.

He's been sitting on this and waiting for it. Yes. Not that everybody is bad in this situation. Everybody is bad. Everything is terrible. Terrible. We're not saying that like he gets, you know, but he is a victim. And of course we see he's a victim, but he's also.

He sure is. Oh, I have feelings on that too. I mean, the video, I just feel like he could have walked out of the house, first of all. He was walking towards the child, knowing the child was there. She was bombed out of her mind. I saw you post this on Instagram where you. You were like, you've like kind of defended her. Listen, 100% what she did was wrong.

And she admitted that and she went to jail for it. Okay. So obviously I am not defending her actions at all. Yeah. I just feel like there are extenuating circumstances. One being she was so hammered that if you see any of the footage of her talking to the cops or whatever during that incident, she was hammered. She has since stopped drinking alcohol. So I think that that's a good step.

in the right direction. More needs to happen, but that's a good step in the right direction. And more might have happened. Yeah, true. That's the thing. Like, this was three years ago and she did change her life

and get help in between. We did get this tidbit from Jesse, her Secret Lives co-star. She was on The Call Her Daddy Podcast. She said that Dakota did sell the video to TMZ. How much do you think of it? I really know what the rate is of like, you know, incriminating videos.

Like 50 grand, 100 grand. It can't be over a hundred grand, right? I can't imagine. But, I mean, please, they've gotten everyone to DMZ, like looking at this video. I mean, oh, there's just so much nuance to this. Yeah. Jared always talks about, like, how everything these days is in black and white. You have to be one team or the other.

True. There's so much nuance to this. So much gray. That, like, you have to just chat it out. Yeah. And also, I want to also say the extenuating circumstances. I also believe that. she's in an abusive relationship.

Yeah. And I feel like I have, thank goodness, never been in an abusive relationship myself, but from people that I know personally who have been in relationships like that, it's just so hard to walk away from that person,

even if you're toxic for each other. Not that it's right that she came back to him, not that it's right that she threw a stool at him. Like none of it is right, but I feel like I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt

and give her some grace. As someone who I have met, who I call a friend, who I welcomed to the sisterhood, like I am, as with anyone, like I actually wrote on our group chat. I wrote her and I said,

just like I did when I welcomed you to the group chat, I am here for you. I know it's a really heavy time, but I believe in the golden rule and I want to treat others how I would like to be treated and I would want to be shown that group.

grace if I'm in probably the darkest days of my life. Right. She appreciated it, I'm sure. She did. I think for me, the bugaboo here is just that, like, it happened in 2023. Yeah. And she has talked and been so emotional about it and so open about it that if the video comes out, it does change everybody's feelings.

It intensifies people's feelings toward it, and it brings everything up to the surface again. But I think it's whatever happened in February. that's why the show should not go forward because whatever happened in February seems to be like she obviously, not obviously proving, we don't know what happened, but that may have proven

that she didn't get the help and change the way that she claimed to have changed. Yeah. Anyway, let's go into the final headline of our Frankie Not Friday episode where Dakota Morton's in. There's old footage of him on an NBC

show called The Island before he found Mormon Wives fame. So he was on this short-lived series called The Island and it's basically about how a modern

American man can survive one month without the luxuries of contemporary everyday life. But you guys, also, he was in this show, the clip is so funny.

He's like, I'm from Idaho and I'm a bird farmer. First of all, we don't know what a bird farmer is. We think it's a bird, Breeder, which makes a lot more sense. And he had never been out of Idaho.

He literally says in the clip, this is the first time I've been to a beach. Like, it's crazy. That is crazy. It's crazy. He said, I worked for my dad and this show reached out to me, and I was like, well, why not give it a try? So what he had to do was basically survive on a deserted island for like a month.

And where can we watch this? Because I really, really, really what I see. It's awful. see, I would watch, I would watch Taylor's season. And now apparently, I would, I am, I am exactly what we preach against. We, like, say that these people need to get off the screen and get help. And here I am being like, I'm going to continue watching them on screen. Oh, goodness gracious.

Okay. So we, we just, we need to find footage of this. Yes, we do. Because it sounds like really good entertainment in a show that, like, should have lived longer. I wonder if they'll bring it back. I wonder. So Dakota. of being on a reality TV show.

In 2015. In 2015, that kind of tells me that, like, he likes the fame element to it. Yeah. I mean, clearly. Hey, I'm not above saying this. I am on Housewives now. I enjoy the attention as well. I think it's ironic, though, because by taking Taylor down, and if he did release the videos

and all of that, she is the white, the more. woman wife, right? He's not the Mormon husband. So that's not his show. So by taking her down, he's essentially taking himself down. Well, that's what's really weird about this whole thing is, was him selling the TMZ video if he did allegedly? Right, allegedly. Um, was he trying to, he's kind of like backfiring. I know his own opportunities because yeah, you might make a hundred grand or whatever in that moment, but then you will probably never be on TV again. Yeah, you're done. And maybe he. And maybe he's, he knows that he had no other

opportunities in TV and this is his last cash grab, who knows? Maybe I don't know. Who knows? To me before all of this went down, he was in, again, I'm not, I haven't watched all the seasons. He had a Scott Dissick energy about him. Right? But Scott Dissick seems to be

far more lovable. Yes. Totally. Far more lovable. There are different people now, but like my initial reaction to him was that he was Scott Dissu. All right, guys. Well, until next time, I've been Ashley. And I've been Justa. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcasts on IHartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

I'm Lori Siegel, and on my new podcast, Mostly Human, I'll take you to some wild corners of the tech world. I'm about to go on a date with an AI companion at a real world cafe right here in New York City. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. Mostly Human is your playbook for how tech can work for you. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur. Anyone can build an app. And it's very empowering.

Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I became a millionaire overnight and lost everything that actually mattered. Hold on, Sophia. Did you just say they lost everything after becoming a millionaire? That's right. And it gets worse. It's inheriting too much drama week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, I just inherited a fortune after losing my mom, and now my girlfriend's entire family is coming out of nowhere with her hands out. And my girlfriend is already giving my money away. So the girl he wants to marry is already sending money out the door. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

10, 10 shots five in City Hall building. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder. This is one of the most dramatic. events that really ever happened in New York City politics. I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten and a mystery that may or may not have been political,

that may have been about sex. Listen to Roershack, murder at City Hall on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Alesspian. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful,

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