Brad Ledford, a 29-year-old contestant who was slated to appear on a recently cancelled season of The Bachelorette, shared a poignant recollection of a traumatic car crash that left his childhood friend, former Congressman Madison Cawthorn, with life-altering injuries. In an interview with PEOPLE in 2021, Ledford detailed the events surrounding the tragic accident that occurred during their teenage years.
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The incident took place in 2014 as the pair were returning to North Carolina from a spring break trip to Florida. At the time, Ledford was a 17-year-old driving his father’s SUV when he reportedly fell asleep at the wheel. The vehicle struck a concrete construction barrier at a speed of approximately 65 mph, resulting in dire consequences for both young men. Cawthorn, who was 18 years old at the time, had been sleeping in the passenger seat with his legs resting on the dashboard when the collision occurred.
Upon impact, Ledford’s face hit the airbag, but his immediate concern was for his friend. He recounted that shortly after the crash, flames engulfed the car. Conscious and panicked, he managed to escape through the driver’s side window and sought to unbuckle Cawthorn. Ledford was assisted by a bystander in pulling his friend from the wreckage, sustaining injuries to the lower half of Cawthorn’s body in the process.
“I remember his leg was pretty badly cut from the accident,” Ledford recalled as he wrapped his shirt around Cawthorn’s injured limb while they waited for paramedics. In a follow-up interview, Cawthorn’s father, Roger Cawthorn, expressed profound gratitude, stating that Ledford had truly saved his son’s life, affirming, “If it wasn’t for him, Madison would have died.”
However, the narrative surrounding the accident took a different turn when Cawthorn made inflammatory remarks during a chapel speech while attending Patrick Henry College in 2017. He described Ledford’s actions in a drastically unfavourable light, accusing him of abandoning him to die in the burning vehicle. Cawthorn claimed that he had been pronounced dead at the scene, while an official report later clarified that he was in a critical condition but alive.
Ledford, in a subsequent interview, strongly refuted Cawthorn’s accusations. “That statement he made was false,” he stated. “It hurt very badly that he would say something as false as that. That is not at all what happened.” During a deposition tied to a protracted insurance dispute regarding the accident, Cawthorn admitted he had “no memory from the accident.”
In the years that followed, Ledford and Cawthorn reportedly lost contact, with Ledford attributing part of the fallout to pressures stemming from the insurance negotiations surrounding the incident. However, by the time Cawthorn was elected to Congress in 2020, the two had reconciled, although Ledford remained uncertain why Cawthorn had not retracted his earlier statements about the crash.
Reflecting on their current relationship in 2021, Ledford expressed forgiveness for Cawthorn’s past remarks. “He’s apologised for that a number of times, and it seems very genuine,” he noted, indicating a sense of hope for their friendship moving forward.
Cawthorn, who gained attention as the youngest person elected to Congress, faced significant scrutiny after a term marked by controversy and scandal, leading to a loss in his reelection campaign in 2022. Now at 30, he has announced plans to run for Congress again in Florida.
Most recently, Ledford’s story has resurfaced in the media alongside the announcement that ABC would not be airing the season of The Bachelorette for which he had been cast. This decision followed significant backlash concerning the show’s lead, Taylor Frankie Paul, and a troubling incident involving her earlier this year. Ledford, when discussing the cancellation, remarked that he harbours a compassionate perspective toward Paul and hopes that she and her family find peace in the wake of the controversy.
In a TikTok video uploaded shortly after the announcement, Ledford expressed sympathy for Paul’s situation, stating, “There’s real kids involved, real family involved, and I want the best for them.” He reflected on the importance of forgiveness, asserting, “God’s love has no bounds; it knows no boundaries.”
Thus, Ledford’s resilience and the enduring complexities of his relationship with Cawthorn underscore the intricacies of friendship shaped by tragedy and personal growth. As he looks to the future, both men must navigate their paths while carrying the weight of their shared past.