It’s been an emotional month for Joey Graziadei as he relived the Bachelorette season 20 finale when it aired, showing Charity Lawson choosing Dotun Olubeko instead of him. Afterward, Graziadei was picked to be the next Bachelor, which will air in 2024.
Host of the Bachelor franchise Jesse Palmer recently revealed to Variety that he’s spoken to Graziadei a few times since he learned that he was going to be the season 28 lead. “And he felt like he was still coming up for air,” Palmer shared about the reality star’s mindset. “It’s a lot to process, and I can certainly appreciate that, you know, reliving the Charity season finale, the announcement.”
Graziadei is certainly not alone, however, as Palmer gave him some good advice about the next chapter of his life. “What I told him is, ‘Get ready because it’s about to be an absolute whirlwind. If you thought your life changed after being on the Charity season, it’s about to go to a completely different level now,'” he told the publication. “So, he’s experiencing that. I mean, the guy’s been the most talked about guy in America. And he’s, at the US Open in tennis, and he’s all over the place. Everything’s going to be different.”
Despite those changes, Palmer said he felt confident in Graziadei’s support system and shared that the tennis pro is focusing on getting himself emotionally ready for his own journey for love.
Graziadei revealed some of the qualities that he’d be looking for in an interview with the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast on August 29. He said he wanted someone adventurous and with a positive mindset for every day, but that beyond that, he’d go with his instincts. Graziadei also shared that his mantra for the experience was to “stay present.”
“My fear would be the lack of staying present and thinking too much ahead and getting lost in all of it and forgetting why you actually are here,” he added. “I’m not worried about it, but that’s where my head is at.”
Graziadei was the runner-up in the latest season of The Bachelorette, and while he and lead Charity Lawson confessed to each other that they were in love, Lawson ended up choosing Olubeko instead, telling Graziadei that she’d found a “deeper” love with someone else. Ever the gentleman, Graziadei comforted Lawson, but in the car afterward, he admitted that he wanted to find his love so badly. “I just want to ask the universe, ‘When is it going to happen for me?'” he wondered. Hopefully for Graziadei, his future wife is just around the corner on The Bachelor season 28.