Bachelor Joey Graziadei is trying to dodge the theories surrounding his upcoming finale of the ABC series.
Us Weekly caught up with the 28-year-old tennis pro on Thursday, February 22, and attempted to ask Joey about his “unprecedented ending” in a creative way — inquiring whether his clear sad tears turn into happy tears before the episode ends.
“It was a good way to rephrase the question, but my answer is going to be exactly the same,” Joey told Us. “I know that they are real emotions. I know that from what I’m told, it is something that hasn’t happened before, and I think once you get to that point and you follow the actual story line, people will understand what those tears mean and that’s the best I can say.”
While there is a lot of speculation about what will happen when Joey gives out his final rose (if he gives it out at all), the latest theory is that he is engaged to Kelsey Anderson. The idea stems from social media users being convinced that the twosome are sharing photos with similar backgrounds on Instagram.
“Obviously anything that comes out like that, I can’t really speak on it. I know people are really trying to figure out what’s going on,” Joey told Us when asked about the Kelsey A. theory. “Yeah, I can’t speak to anything that’s sent because it’s not really something that I’m paying attention to.”
Other fans (including Us) are convinced that Joey ends up with Daisy Kent.
“I think everyone’s seen where the feelings are at at this point, and if she does continue to move forward, I think you’ll be able to see that too,” Joey told Us of the standout. “Daisy’s a very sweet and kind person who I think that we connected really early on, and that’s what people have seen.”
Some viewers, however, are hypothesizing that Lexi Young could return after self-eliminating because Joey wants to wait two to three years to get married after getting engaged and then have children. Lexi has concerns about waiting to expand her family because she has stage 5 endometriosis.
“I think I can speak for a lot of guys [that a children timeline is] not usually something we think through all the time, but I’m glad that she asked that because it’s an important conversation to have and I think more people should think about that,” Joey told Us. “I gave my honest answer about the engagement and kids and everything because it is a different timeline that we’re on. You meet someone very quickly through this process. You take the engagement seriously if it does happen, and then you want to make sure you have enough time to test that engagement and be in the real world. And I think that’s really important to pay attention to. So that is why I had the two-to-three-year engagement in my head because I would feel like it’d be wrong to both of us if I ended up with someone and we kind of rushed into the idea of marriage.”
Joey reiterated that he has “always wanted to be able to enjoy a marriage” before kids entered the picture to “have some time for yourselves to see what it’s like to be newlyweds before you bring in another really important part of the world, which is kids and that new foundation.”
He added: “And I want all of it, but I never wanted to rush it. But I think you also saw, I explained to Lexi that I would be open to change that timeline with the right person. And if she was willing to kind of see through that, I would’ve loved to have kept her there. But it was her decision and I respect it 100 percent, and as I said, I wish her nothing but the best and know that she’s going to be a great mother someday.”
The Bachelors airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
