If you thought Taylor Frankie Paul jumping from the chaos of MomTok to the mansion was random, Season 4 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives just connected every single dot.
The Hulu reality series dropped its fourth season on March 12, and fans who tuned in expecting the usual soft-swinging scandals and friendship fractures got something else entirely: a surprisingly thorough origin story for how the first-ever Bachelorette crossover star got ready for her close-up . And yes, it involves a TikTok musician, a fake rose ceremony, and a whole lot of side-eyeing from her friends.
For anyone keeping up with both franchises, the timing is intentional. With The Bachelorette Season 22 premiering March 22 on ABC, Secret Lives Season 4 functions as the prequel fans didn’t know they needed . Here’s how the new episodes reframe everything we thought we knew about Taylor’s journey to the mansion.
The Ben Lambert Situation: Practice Runs and Raised Eyebrows
The most revealing storyline in Season 4 follows Taylor, 31, as she navigates a very confusing romantic detour right before leaving for The Bachelorette. Cameras capture her flying out TikTok musician Ben Lambert to Utah after connecting with him through his live streams .
“I don’t know why I was just like, immediately I was like, ‘crush, crush,’” Taylor admits in a confessional, explaining the connection that began when she commented on his musical TikToks .
The timing raised immediate red flags among the MomTok crew. Taylor had just been announced as the Bachelorette lead in September 2025, yet here she was, soft-launching (literally flying out) a guy she barely knew .
Her reasoning? She frames it as practice.
“I’m just barely getting back into it,” she explains of dating post-Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares 22-month-old son Ever. “I’m keeping a guard up with Ben because I have a history of falling maybe a little too fast or jumping into things too fast, so that was something I did not want to do again, especially before The Bachelorette” .
The logic tracks for anyone who has watched Taylor bounce from husband Tate Paul to Dakota and through the “soft swinging” fallout that made her famous. But her friends aren’t buying it.
Mikayla Matthews voices what viewers are probably thinking: “With her going on The Bachelorette, I feel like she’s getting really close to this guy. I don’t know what the intentions are there. I feel like it might just be her subconsciously sabotaging her happiness” .
The First Impression Rose That Wasn’t
The Season 4 episode takes an unexpectedly meta turn when the MomTok ladies decide to stage a mock rose ceremony for Taylor. They want her to practice what it will feel like handing out those iconic roses, and Taylor plays along.
Ben becomes her guinea pig.
In a moment that feels almost too on-the-nose, Taylor presents him with a “first impression rose” and says, “I chose to give you my first impression rose because you felt like home, and I feel like we resonated on a lot” .
The scene functions as foreshadowing and a genuine question mark. Is Taylor rehearsing for the real thing, or is she genuinely conflicted about walking into the mansion while a perfectly nice musician waits in Utah?
When Layla Taylor asks Ben directly how he feels about getting to know the woman chosen as the next Bachelorette, his response is surprisingly chill. “I think it’s good for her and everything,” he says. When pressed about what happens if Taylor meets her future husband on the show, he shrugs, “I mean, if that’s how it happens, if she finds someone who she’s happier with, then that’s good” .
That level of calm either makes Ben the most secure man in America or someone who fully understood the assignment from the start.
The Pregnancy Scare That Changes Everything
Just when viewers think they have the timeline sorted, the Season 4 trailer drops a bombshell that reframes the entire crossover. In the preview, Jessi Ngatikaura asks the question everyone is whispering: will Taylor be a “pregnant Bachelorette”?
The teaser shows Taylor on the phone, visibly upset, saying, “I hate all of you because you all knew” . While the context remains unclear until viewers watch the full season, the implication is significant.
If Taylor were pregnant heading into the mansion, it would mark an ABC first for the dating franchise . It would also explain why her pre-Bachelorette behavior felt so scattered. The Ben Lambert situation suddenly reads less as sabotage and more as someone tying up loose ends before a major life transition.
The timing aligns with what we know: Taylor’s relationship with Dakota officially ended during Season 3, which premiered in November 2025. She briefly considered reconciliation before claims that Dakota sexted a family friend ended those conversations . By the time The Bachelorette announcement came in September 2025, Taylor was navigating single motherhood, fresh heartbreak, and the possibility of new romance all at once .
MomTok Reacts: Support, Skepticism, and Self-Interest
The Season 4 storylines don’t exist in a vacuum. As Taylor prepares for her Bachelorette journey, her friends are dealing with their own rising profiles.
Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt compete on Dancing With the Stars, Mayci Neeley embarks on a book tour for Told You So, and Layla Taylor walks New York Fashion Week . The group is fragmenting not through drama, but through success.
Layla sums it up in the trailer: “Everyone is going after their dreams, but it could potentially pull us apart” .
Miranda Hope offers a more pragmatic take on Taylor’s opportunity. “I feel like Taylor being the Bachelorette is a huge opportunity for her,” she says in a confessional. “We’re all just hoping that she can go and represent herself in the best way, to find that real and genuine, authentic love, but also represent MomTok in the best way as well, so we can thrive as a business” .
The honesty is refreshing. MomTok isn’t just a friend group, it’s a brand. Taylor’s success in the mansion could elevate all of them.
What This Means for The Bachelorette
Understanding Season 4 context makes Taylor’s upcoming Bachelorette season significantly more compelling.
First, she enters the mansion having already practiced rejection and connection with someone she genuinely liked. The Ben Lambert situation proves she’s capable of forming connections outside her usual type, which matters when 22 men she’s never met are about to climb out of limos .
Second, the pregnancy question looms. If Taylor is expecting, her journey will look very different from any previous Bachelorette season. Producers would have to navigate medical considerations, emotional volatility, and the logistics of filming a lead who may be experiencing morning sickness or fatigue.
Third, she’s already proven she can handle public scrutiny. The “soft swinging” scandal that launched Secret Lives drew massive attention, and Taylor emerged from it with a hit show and a growing platform . The Bachelorette audience can be brutal, but Taylor has faced worse than anonymous Twitter comments.
The Bigger Picture: Disney’s Crossover Strategy
It’s impossible to ignore the corporate synergy at play here. Both The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Hulu) and The Bachelorette (ABC) fall under the Disney umbrella . This crossover didn’t happen by accident.
ABC announced Taylor as the Season 22 lead in September 2025, and Secret Lives Season 4 dropped six months later, perfectly positioned to build momentum before her March 22 premiere . Viewers who discovered Taylor through Secret Lives now have a reason to tune into ABC, and Bachelor fans curious about this unconventional lead can binge four seasons of context on Hulu.
It’s smart programming. It’s also rare to see a reality star get this level of cross-platform investment.
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Where Things Stand Now
All 10 episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 4 are streaming now on Hulu . Whether you’re team Taylor, team Ben, or just here for the chaos, the season delivers exactly what the title promises: secrets, lies, and women trying to hold themselves together while their lives expand in unexpected directions.
The Bachelorette premieres March 22 on ABC . By then, we’ll know whether Taylor enters the mansion single, attached, or with news that changes everything.
One thing is certain: the woman stepping out of that SUV has been through more pre-Bachelorette preparation than any lead in franchise history. Whether that preparation helps or haunts her remains to be seen.
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