ABC's scrapped 'Bachelorette' cast man whose car crash paralyzed firebrand Republican
A contestant on the now-scrapped ABC franchise "The Bachelorette" was reportedly the driver in a car wreck that left former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) paralyzed, according to reports on Friday.
More information emerged about the now-canceled series and what was going on behind the scenes during filming, including new details about the contestants and show lead Taylor Frankie Paul, Vulture reported. ABC pulled the plug on the show on Thursday after a shocking video emerged of Paul in an explosive fight with Dakota Mortensen, her ex-boyfriend and the father of one of her three children. Paul, who is also a main cast member in Hulu's "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," was seen in video footage from 2023 putting Mortensen in a headlock, hitting him and throwing metal chairs, one of which hit their child sitting on a sofa.
The decision sent shockwaves among fans who questioned why the long-running show was planning to feature Paul and who the contestants were.
"Among the suitors vying for her affection were Brad Ledford, who was the driver in the car accident that paralyzed former congressman Madison Cawthorn; Another, Clayton Johnson, was formerly engaged to Lana Del Rey. Then there’s Doug Mason, a lifeguard from San Diego who looks like the platonic ideal of a lifeguard from San Diego and who also resembled Mortensen so much fans had already decided Paul chose him," Vulture reported.
Cawthorn was formerly the youngest member of Congress and was elected in 2020 to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District.
In 2021, Washington Post reporter Michael Kranish suggested that Cawthorn — who was also among the speakers at the "Save America Rally" in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 — had been dishonest about the 2014 crash that left him disabled.
"Cawthorn said a close friend had crashed the car in which he was a passenger and fled the scene, leaving him to die 'in a fiery tomb,'" Kranish wrote. "Cawthorn was 'declared dead,' he said in the 2017 speech at Patrick Henry College. He said he told doctors that he expected to recover and that he would 'be at the Naval Academy by Christmas.'
But Kranish wrote that wasn't actually the case, and that Ledford, a now contestant in the ABC franchise, had a different story.
"Key parts of Cawthorn’s talk, however, were not true," Kranish wrote. "The friend, Bradley Ledford, who has not previously spoken publicly about the chapel speech, said in an interview that Cawthorn’s account was false and that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage. An accident report obtained by The Washington Post said Cawthorn was 'incapacitated,' not that he was declared dead. Cawthorn himself said in a lawsuit deposition, first reported by the news outlet AVL Watchdog, that he had been rejected by the Naval Academy before the crash."