The Bachelor star Joey Graziadei has revealed his biggest fear and expectations going into hometown dates with Daisy Kent, Kelsey Anderson, Maria Georgas, and Rachel Nance on Season 28.
|
|
The Bachelor airs its next episode on Monday, February 4 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC, and fans are about to watch Joey meet his Final 4 bachelorettes’ parents and family members.
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELOR’ FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
“I’m nervous! If I ever walked into a house and said, ‘I’m the Bachelor!… I’m good,’ Kick me out, that’s terrible!” Joey quipped during the February 29 episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, which is co-hosted by Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
The stakes were high for Joey when he traveled to his Final 4 bachelorettes’ hometowns after the cast’s time in Alberta, Canada.
For instance, Joey was hoping that Daisy was going to fall in love with him and finally express her feelings to him, and he was about to become the first man whom Maria ever brought home to meet her beloved father.
“I was nervous,” Joey reiterated, “I think that a family’s blessing is such a big deal.”
Joey also pointed out how The Bachelor and The Bachelorette hometowns are difficult because the lead is dating multiple people at once.
“It’s a weird type of blessing to ask for,” Joey reasoned.
“Because I always kept saying through [the process], ‘I can’t promise anything. I’m in a rare position where I can’t tell you what’s going on fully. I can’t promise anything, but I’m going to sit here and tell you why I think your daughter is special and why I think there’s a chance that this could work out in the end. And I just want to hear your thoughts.'”
Joey revealed that happened to be the mindset he entered every conversation with during hometowns.
“[I thought to myself], ‘Don’t try to act like you have it all figured out. Don’t try to be the person that proves to them that you’re the person for their daughter. Just show who you are as a person and understand that it’s a very rare situation,'” Joey recalled.
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELORETTE’ COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID ‘THE BACHELORETTE’ STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Joey said that in each scenario, he was just asking a parent or relative for “understanding” and “a little bit of respect at the end of the day.”
But Joey acknowledged how respect is “earned” and so he walked into every house “wanting to earn” that trust “but not expecting it in any way.”
Joey went on to reveal how the scariest thing for him going into hometowns was the idea that meeting a family — and it possibly not going well — could damage, rather than benefit, his relationship with one or more of the women.
“I think anyone who’s been to that point can understand how good things are going for a lot of the relationships at that point,” Joey shared.
“You might be hitting the best point possible, like, you’re seeing something grow and you’re seeing something get to the point of, ‘Wow, this might actually work.'”
Joey therefore confessed, “I was so deathly afraid for hometowns being a step back.”
Joey decided not to give Joe and Serena specifics on whom he was worried about or why that would be the case on his season, but he teased, “There were definitely moments going in where I was like, ‘This is going so well; I’m deathly afraid of something going wrong and us not moving at the same trajectory that we were.'”
Joey believes that was a natural fear for him to have considering family was so important to his remaining bachelorettes.
“It could be a dealbreaker,” Joey said of someone’s family visit went poorly.
“And yeah, I just didn’t want to take steps backward in a relationship that I could see was really starting to progress.”
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELOR’ COUPLES NOW: WHO DID ‘THE BACHELOR’ STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Joey also quipped that he was worried about a parent yelling at or scolding him, nevermind disliking or disapproving of him.
In a preview of the upcoming episode, Maria’s dad tells Joey during her hometown date, “It’s hard for me right now because I don’t know where you stand.”
Maria’s dad then says to The Bachelor cameras, “Maria is 100 percent daddy’s girl. If she gets hurt, it would be a problem for Joey.”
Joey therefore concluded on the podcast, “There’s always going to be one family that pushes a little harder, and one person who says, ‘I’m going to check this person a little bit.’ And you’ll see that in this. There’s always someone who does that, and it’s just part of it.”
Joey previously confirmed that he’s “happy” after filming but the ending of his The Bachelor season was a “shocker” and “unprecedented” for the franchise.
“I was emotional!” Joey said on the “Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe” podcast earlier this year.
“I think the big thing is I have not been a huge, avid watcher of the show. This was all very new to me, but from what I’m told, the ending is something that hasn’t happened before.”
Joey acknowledged, “I know they say that every time, but this is actually, from what I’m told, that is the case.”
Joey also told Kaitlyn Bristowe that he has no regrets from his history-making season.
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELOR’ FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Click here to read spoilers on how the rest of Joey’s The Bachelor season plays out, including which bachelorettes finished as his winner and runner-up.
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!
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.