'Bachelorette' Taylor Frankie Paul Spills on Her Relationship With Ben Lambert
Did Taylor Frankie Paul soft launch a new boyfriend on Instagram?
Published Sept. 10 2025, 1:37 p.m. ET
A week before she was named the lead for The Bachelorette Season 22, Taylor Frankie Paul posted a now-deleted Instagram photo of a man holding a guitar — his face hidden, his identity unconfirmed. Fans immediately lit up the comments, convinced it was a “soft-launch” of a new romance. That man, many speculated, was singer-songwriter Ben Lambert.
And, for a moment, the internet felt sure they’d cracked it. After all, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star had just ended her on-again, off-again relationship with Dakota Mortensen. Could she really be moving on already? And with a mystery guitar guy?
Fortunately, it was Taylor Frankie Paul herself who cleared the air on her relationship status with Ben Lambert.
Taylor Frankie Paul gets candid about what her relationship status with Ben Lambert really is.
While announcing her The Bachelorette lead status on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Taylor didn’t dodge the drama — she embraced it. “It wasn’t a soft-launch,” she told host Alex Cooper. “I have met the guy twice. It was funny.”
That’s right. According to Taylor, the whole post was just for fun. “I have no idea what I was thinking,” she laughed. “I do things like that all the time. It’s fun. It’s entertaining. I guess I didn’t think that one too much through.”
She added that while Ben is “a likable guy,” the two are far from official. “Are we official? No. I don’t know the guy. Nothing along the lines of a soft-launch. I don’t know him.”
It all started with a TikTok Live, a guitar, and a perfectly timed comment.
Taylor explained that she stumbled upon Ben during a TikTok Live session where he was playing and singing. “It was, like, new to him, too,” she said. “I was like, ‘This guy’s got a voice!’”
She’d never even commented on a TikTok Live before, but something made her jump in. “I was the one who was like, ‘You have a really good voice, can you play this song?’” Ben asked where she was from, and when she told him, he casually mentioned that his ex used to watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Taylor didn’t give anything away — she told him she “just made an appearance” on the show.
“I’m literally just teasing him,” she said. “Then he ended up looking me up after the fact.”
Turns out, that little digital spark led to two real-life visits from Ben to Taylor’s home state of Utah. But there’s no romance, she insisted — just mutual curiosity and some easy conversation.
After back-to-back relationships, Taylor is keeping things light — and staying open.
As Swooon reminds fans, Taylor was married to Tate Paul from 2016 to 2022. After that, she and Dakota dated on and off and welcomed a child together in March 2024. Their final split happened early on in 2025, and Taylor said she wanted time to reenter the dating world before being thrust into reality-TV matchmaking.
Meeting Ben reminded her that there are still decent guys out there — and that sometimes, a casual TikTok Live can lead to real-world surprises. For now, Taylor isn’t claiming any titles or relationship statuses. Her now-deleted Instagram post wasn’t teasing a secret boyfriend. She was just having a little fun with her followers.