The Bachelor star Joey Graziadei has revealed what he and Charity Lawson talked about off-camera and behind closed doors during her The Bachelorette season.
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Joey, 29, shared that during his Fantasy Suite with Charity on The Bachelorette’s 20th season, they had discussed careers, money, and what their future would look like together during the June 10 episode of Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast.
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“[We] 100 percent [had that serious chat],” Joey told Jason during a joint interview with his The Bachelor 28 winner and fiancee Kelsey Anderson.
Jason, a former banker who had competed on Becca Kufrin’s The Bachelorette season, admitted he was surprised to hear that given it’s “rare” for couples from the franchise to dive into those details during intimate off-camera time.
“It’s important to understand what you’re trying to see [is] next, because I think anytime you get into this world, you have to ask the question, ‘What is it going to be like to be in a public relationship?'” Joey explained.
“And that conversation naturally pivots into, ‘Well, what do you want to do with all of this?'”
The Bachelor naturally thrusts a couple into the spotlight and entertainment industry, with frequent media appearances, devoted fans on social media, and new financial opportunities.
After starring on The Bachelorette in 2023, Charity — who got engaged to Dotun Olubeko during her Season 20 finale — took a break from her career as a therapist.
And Joey, who proposed marriage to Kelsey on The Bachelor’s 28th season, has yet to return to his former job as a tennis pro.
For Kelsey’s part, she revealed on “Trading Secrets” that she felt the need to quit her job as an assistant project manager due to all the traveling she’s been doing with Joey.
“No one comes into this, if they’re in it for ‘the right reasons,’ to try to turn it into something else,” Joey explained.
“But you would be a fool to not at least have that conversation to see, like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And during that time, Charity was saying, ‘I want to get back into therapy,’ and for me, I was saying, ‘Tennis is going to be a part of my life.'”
Joey clarified that he and Charity “didn’t have a deep conversation” about those logistics and it was more “surface level” chatter, but he clarified, “I think it was also important.”
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Joey said he had similar discussions with Kelsey in their Fantasy Suite on The Bachelor, which wrapped in March on ABC.
“We were like, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to be in the public light? Do you want to shy away from it? Do we want to figure out ways to get back to our normal life? If we can’t, how are we going to pivot and do that?'” Joey recalled.
“I want to say it was at least an hour-long conversation.”
Kelsey agreed and added, “I said, ‘I pretty much am open to it, as long as it doesn’t taint our relationship or affect our relationship.'”
Joey said that conversation was actually a defining moment for him on The Bachelor, when he could truly wrap his mind around how a relationship was going to work post-filming.
“When you’re in the position [of the lead], you always question, ‘Are you doing this for some other reason?’ And she gave the most natural answer that I have ever heard,” Joey gushed.
“What I remembered was, ‘I will be open to whatever this brings, but as soon as we start doing this for other people, I want out. Like, I’m not doing this unless it’s for us.’ That’s when I was like, ‘You’re in this for me, and now I can actually fully see what this is going to bring.'”
Joey and Kelsey reiterated how they’re open to new possibilities and career changes knowing they could always fall back on their pre-The Bachelor jobs.
“We are doing our best to navigate a very weird situation,” Joey quipped.
He concluded, “You could always find the wrong things in this, but if you could get the right perspective and be grateful for how this actually happened, there are good things that come from it.”
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Joey dished more about his Fantasy Suite with Kelsey during a late March episode of “The Viall Files” podcast hosted by former The Bachelor star Nick Viall.
“That was hands down the best night [Kelsey andI] had because I think we stayed up until, like, 4 or 5AM talking, and it was natural and it was easy,” Joey said, adding how their night together was “almost too good.”
Kelsey chimed in, “I just want to say that Joey navigated Fantasy Suites perfectly, in my opinion.”
Kelsey giggled, which prompted the podcast’s host, Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall, to announce, “It sounds like Joey didn’t hook up with anyone else!”
“I’m not going to give any more details on that,” Kelsey quipped. “But I thought he navigated it perfectly.”
When recalling their Fantasy Suite date, Kelsey and Joey shared how they talked about their political views and had “deeper convos,” including their “makes or breaks.”
Kelsey said, “We talked so much about all of that stuff, but yeah, I knew that he was going to spend the night with two other women.”
Kelsey admitted that even just “thinking about him sleeping next to another woman kind of bothered” her, but at the same time, Kelsey said she was determined to just focus on their connection.
“I didn’t want to know anything about anybody else,” Kelsey confirmed. “I did not hear anything until afterwards, but yeah, I think he navigated it really well, and I just tried taking it step by step.”
Joey admitted he was “scared” of Fantasy Suites and how they typically caused a falling out for past Bachelors and their winners.
“I did think through everything. I was doing my best to handle that situation, while it’s not easy, as well as I could,” Joey explained.
“And I do think it’s important to highlight that that’s a very important night to talk through things, and that’s what I really tried to focus on. And, yeah, I handled it the best way that I could!”
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.