Joey Graziadei and Kelsey Anderson have explained how they handled watching The Bachelor’s 28th season back on TV and what “really affected” Kelsey in a negative way.
“Honestly, I had my own method [for watching it] where for the first two episodes or so, I watched all of it, but the more it went on, I would put on my headphones and scroll on my phone during other people’s one-on-ones or other intimate moments,” Kelsey said in a joint interview with Joey on the March 26 episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast.
“I was just like, ‘I don’t need to see this because this is, like, not what it is now.’ So I would just ignore a lot of it and just focus on our moments.”
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But Kelsey admitted to the podcast’s co-hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt “there were parts” that were “harder” for her to watch.
Joey, however, “was always so supportive and understanding throughout it all,” according to Kelsey.
“Props to Joey for, you know, helping me go through all of this,” Kelsey noted with a laugh.
Joey revealed that he wanted to present the best version of his The Bachelor journey to his future wife one day, which shaped many of his decisions and actions during filming.
“I did, through this entire season, always try to think through, ‘Okay, your wife is going to be watching this back someday. Let’s try your best to make sure your words have purpose and that your actions, you’ll be able to go back and explain,'” Joey explained.
“But there are still some moments when you walk through and go, ‘Gosh, this has got to be so hard for [Kelsey].’ So I tried as much as possible to watch it through her eyes to prep her as much as I could when I saw things,” Joey recalled.
Joey shared that the couple’s experience watching The Bachelor thankfully “wasn’t as tough as it could’ve been” because Joey and Kelsey had an open line of communication.
“[I] explained everything as much as possible because, yeah, I want this to be a great experience,” Joey reasoned.
“But as everyone knows who goes through it, it is tough to navigate through some of this, and no one should have to watch what [Kelsey] had to watch. And I feel for her through that.”
But Joey noted that he and Kelsey “focused” on their current relationship at the time, which really helped them through it.
Kelsey also confirmed that she “didn’t really watch” Joey’s Fantasy Suites episode, nor did she watch the Final 4 bachelorettes’ hometown dates.
“Obviously afterwards, you see social media going crazy about it all, so I think, honestly, the hardest part for me was seeing everybody talking about it afterwards — not even watching it,” Kelsey explained.
“Usually, even if I watched a whole episode, I didn’t feel any type of way, just because I knew the connection we had, even if it wasn’t fully shown.”
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Kelsey insisted she felt “really confident” in what she had with Joey while watching the show but the real problem was “the aftermath” of it all.
“Everybody else’s thoughts on it were what, I think, really affected me more,” Kelsey told Joe and Serena.
“I just think that certain people really liked certain women, and then they, you know, want those women to be with Joey. It was kind of hard for me to be like, ‘But it’s me!'”
Joey pointed out how some viewers took “the smallest amount of information” and “created their own storyline.”
Joey elaborated, “That was it. They came up with ideas or came up with storylines that were not true, but they had this little [idea] of, ‘Well that had to happen then!’ And, ‘No, this happened!’ But you can’t really control other people’s opinions.”
Joey and Kelsey were glad, however, that a lot of people were invested in this The Bachelor season and in their relationship, more specifically.
“They enjoyed it… and we’re obviously just happy that we’re here now,” Joey concluded.
Kelsey added, “I was able to find my own way of pushing that to the side and being like, ‘This is what is real, and so this is what I should focus on.'”
Kelsey and Joey revealed on the podcast how they plan to move in together in New York this summer but want to have a long engagement.
Joey proposed marriage to Kelsey on The Bachelor finale after his runner-up, Daisy Kent, predicted that Joey was going to dump her and she bowed out of the competition gracefully during the Final Rose Ceremony in Tulum, Mexico.
“Falling in love with you has been so fun and I do love you,” Daisy told The Bachelor star. “But the thing is, you’re not going to choose me.”
Joey immediately broke down into tears, confirming that Daisy’s gut instinct was correct.
“I know that you know I’m not your person,” Daisy said. “And as much as that hurts, umm, I know you said you want what’s best for me, and so I’m going to do what’s best for me — and I’m going to go.”
Joey proceeded to reunite with Kelsey at the Final Rose Ceremony.
“I love you,” Joey gushed. “There is something about you. You have this infectious energy that makes me smile. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before. I know during this time that we’ve built a very strong flame, and the only reason I know why that flame will never go out is because you’re my light.”
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Joey said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Kelsey, and then he proposed marriage to her.
During the live After the Final Rose special, Kelsey and Joey were gifted a trip back to Jasper, Canada, and Joey gushed of his fiancee, “I now have my ‘forever,’ and I’m the luckiest guy there could be… I don’t know how I’m going to have a boring day of life with her by my side.”
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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.