News & Gossip: ‘SLOMW’ Crumbles, Taylor v. Clarke, ‘The Vow’ Trailer & ‘Love Is Blind’ 11 Cast Bios

Emma Gray (0:20)

I'm Claire Fallon, and I'm Emma Gray.

Claire Fallon (0:23)

And this is Love to See It, an obsessively detailed podcast about the romance we see on screen. From reality dating shows like The Bachelor to classic rom-coms and other pop culture that makes us laugh, cry, and curse the patriarchy.

Emma Gray (0:37)

We can't live with these stories and we can't live without them, but we can break down every juicy detail and unpack all the weird messages on screen romance sends us about love, sex, and dating.

Claire Fallon (1:01)

Welcome to Love to See It, a podcast about things falling apart, shows, relationships, marketing campaigns, and about 30 singles from Boston who love cooking and eating Italian food. Every way you can experience Italian food, they love it. This week, we're catching up on some news and gossip from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives to Chris Harrison's upcoming show, The Vow, and we'll be wrapping up with a quick little look at the Love Is Blind cast bios that dropped this week. So a lot on the agenda, but before we get into it, some housekeeping. If you've missed our recent coverage of The Trader's New Blood, just scroll back in the feed. The show is having a week off this week just to mess with our heads. So we will have coverage of that returning next week. Rich Text is now on Patreon, and our latest episode was about the First Wives Club, which was extremely fun to chat about. It was actually the first time I had ever seen the First Wives Club, and it was such a treat.

Lee (1:59)

I was just going to say, you had never seen First Wives Club.

Claire Fallon (2:03)

I know. It was sort of embarrassing, but also I knew we were going to cover it for the show at some point. And so I had kind of, it's sort of like a nice bar of chocolate you put on the upper shelf of your cabinet. I was like, I'm going to get to enjoy this for the first time before long.

Lee (2:17)

But that's what makes the episode so great too, is because it was your first time. And then Emma, of course, is a long time stan of that movie. I remember talking about it at the office.

Emma Gray (2:26)

She was the expert.

Claire Fallon (2:28)

Yeah, so we had a lot of fun with that one. And you can find that in our other Rich Text episodes at patreon.com/richtext.

So we're going to start with a topic that I have not been paying as close attention to as I should because it is depressing. And that is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and how it has been sort of slowly and then quickly and then slowly and then quickly falling apart. Lee, you have been covering this more for your actual job. So I asked you to take the lead on this. Would you like to walk us through what's been going on since we last discussed this show?

Lee (3:05)

Of course. So yes, for those who don't know, I am a writer at Entertainment Weekly. So I do cover a lot of shows and a lot of celebrity gossip. But this has been a huge topic, as we know, especially since the season aired. And I know you covered that. I was in Disney when we covered Mormon Wives. But I have been following what's been happening, and it's been interesting.

So of course we have-

Claire Fallon (3:28)

It's been a witty pause. Interesting.

Lee (3:30)

We have a lot of girls on the show who have been concerned about what's been happening with Taylor Franky-Paul.

Her Bachelorette season was canceled, and we'll get to that. But first I want to mention that because of what's been happening, we've had some cast exits. Mikayla announced that she's leaving due to the fact that she doesn't align with the personal morals of the show, amid how they've kind of included and treated everything that's happening with Taylor Franky-Paul. She stated that she's no longer comfortable being part of the production and that she doesn't want to support a platform that profits off toxic behavior. Specifically, she pointed to her own experience growing up in a home with multiple forms of abuse. And she says, For me personally, continuing to directly profit from this behavior feels wrong and unethical. It feels like a disservice to the children, everyone's healing and the millions of people watching. Supporting an adult doesn't mean constantly making excuses for toxic behavior, while giving unconditional sympathy and grace with zero accountability or change. I was in that enabling cycle for years and I'm not going to be a part of that again. And she also noted that she's donating her earnings from the show to the National Children's Alliance, which supports victims and families affected by child abuse. Now I wanted to know what are your feelings on Mikayla's exit, specifically in terms of what's happening with Taylor, because it is super complicated.