The Bachelorette suitor Casey Hux has claimed that rumors Taylor Frankie Paul stormed off during a date when her 2023 arrest came up simply aren't true.
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But according to Casey, a 30-year-old mechanical engineer from Nashville, TN, that never happened.
"I'll deny and tease a little bit. So, I don't know where that came from," Casey claimed during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
"We were hanging out at an undisclosed place at an undisclosed time, and she brought up what happened and went into it in very intensive detail, just, like, with the incident with her kid."
ABC announced its decision to cancel Taylor's season of The Bachelorette only three days before it was scheduled to premiere on March 22.
ABC made its choice to pull The Bachelorette after a 2023 video leaked online of Taylor punching, kicking and throwing metal barstools at her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, with whom she welcomed her youngest son, Ever True, 2.
When Taylor was attacking Dakota in the video footage, her daughter Indy, now 8, was present and could be heard crying and screaming "mommy" in the background. Dakota could also be heard claiming that one of the stools had struck Indy during the altercation.
"And so, when that video came out, she had already very [and] fully described it to me. Like, I had a mental image of that same scene. So, it's not something she shied away from," Casey insisted to co-hosts Charity Lawson and Kathy Swarts.
Casey claimed that Taylor had asked her bachelors "tough questions" about the past during filming, seemingly trying to gauge their reaction to her mistakes as well as learn if they've gone through anything similar.
"And as someone that's here with intentionality and someone that's like, 'I'm making a lifetime decision,' you should know these things and should ask these questions. So she was the one who brought it up originally," Casey explained.
"When she did, it took me a little while to process it. So, she brought that up and we were having a really good night at that time. And it just wasn't the time or the place, and I didn't really know how I was feeling."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWCasey therefore revealed that he brought up her 2023 arrest again, later on.
"I brought it up the next time and she was super cool, calm, and collected about it. There was no storming off. There was no anger," Casey claimed.
"There was sadness, and the only thing I can imagine being worse than the person on the receiving end of that, is the person that knows they did that and has to live with that for the rest of their lives."
The bachelor continued, "If it was me, I would be beating myself up over that every day, and it would make it so hard not to go back to that and not to lose control again because you're just like on edge all the time."
When he and Taylor spoke about the incident, he apparently found a way to relate to her.
"I explained like, 'Hey, this is why I ended my relationship. This is kind of a sore subject for me. This is probably something that is close to me,'" Casey recalled.
"And she was like, 'Yeah. It was the worst day of my life and I did something about it. I gave up drinking after that.' And to me, that was enough. I didn't need some long, sob story about what happened."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
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"[She] showed intention and has followed through on that and was accountable for it," Casey told Charity and Kathy.
"That meant the world. I thought it was a really powerful moment between us two, and I'm really glad we got the opportunity to sit down one-on-one and talk about it like that."
Casey also admitted he was glad to have heard about the 2023 domestic dispute from Taylor herself.
"Because if it was me reading a news article and coming up with my own opinions on what happened with limited information and not being able to talk to her in a vulnerable state, who knows what I would've thought," Casey said.
"I think that was one of the good things about coming into this experience kind of blind was, I did as little research as I could on anything because I felt like it would be [disingenuous] for me to do all my homework on Taylor."
Casey pointed out how that's "not how you meet someone in the wild" and he wanted his dating experience on The Bachelorette to be as organic as possible.
"You don't find a girl at the grocery store and list off 10 facts about her. That would be a traumatizing experience," Casey quipped.
"With that being said, I do think there is a place to do a little bit of background research on people just to know where y'all relate. Especially with such limited time that we have in this world, like, in The Bachelor world."
A spokesperson for Taylor -- who shares Indy and also a son Ocean, 5, with ex-husband Tate Paul -- claimed in a March 19 statement that Taylor was "very grateful for ABC's support" as she prioritized her family's "safety and security" following The Bachelorette's cancellation.
"After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm," the spokesperson said on Taylor's behalf.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Taylor was arrested following her 2023 fight with Dakota on charges of aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury, and criminal mischief.
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Taylor ultimately reached a plea deal that -- assuming its terms and conditions were followed -- would reduce her aggravated assault charge to a misdemeanor in August 2026, according to Us Weekly.
When the video leaked, Taylor was already under scrutiny for new domestic assault allegations stemming from a late February incident with Dakota.
According to People, Dakota was granted a temporary restraining order against Taylor, which he filed on the same day ABC announced its decision to cancel The Bachelorette's 22nd season.
A hearing on Dakota's temporary restraining order has reportedly been set for April 7, and Taylor has not been allowed to see Ever in the meantime, per the court order obtained by People.
In addition to Taylor's 2023 arrest and the February incident that resulted in Taylor and Dakota reporting physical abuse both ways, officials are now investigating a third domestic violence incident from 2024.
NBC News broke the news of the third allegation broke on March 25.
Amid Taylor's legal troubles, Hulu paused production on Season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Taylor took a long break from social media but returned to Instagram on April 4, sharing candid moments with Ocean and Indy, including a video in which she and her daughter were singing in a bathroom together.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
To read spoilers about what happened on Taylor's The Bachelorette season and whether she picked Casey as her winner, click here.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
