After a dramatic finale, Joey Graziadei and Kelsey Anderson are going strong after some “difficult” moments watching The Bachelor season 28 back.
“It’s been great in a lot of ways, but we won’t lie it’s been difficult too,” Joey admitted during The Bachelor: After the Final Rose on Monday, March 25. “I think a lot of people forget how difficult of a position she’s is into watch all this back with everyone else and understand that I’m trying to figure out everything from the point that we were at, at that time. But we have grown so much since then.”
Joey went on to say that he and Kelsey have “the ability to talk more” and “understand each other’s communication style.” He added that it’s the “strongest we’ve ever been” since getting engaged.
When offering a life update, Kelsey revealed that she and Joey are headed to her native New Orleans before planning on moving to New York in the summer.
Joey, 28, proposed to Kelsey, 25, earlier in the episode after an emotional ending to his relationship with runner-up Daisy Kent.
“I can’t wait another minute to tell you that I love you. There is something about you. You have this infectious energy that makes me smile. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before,” Joey said during his proposal speech. “I know during this time that we’ve built a very strong flame and the only reason I know that flame will never go out is because you’re my light. I have known for a while that I’ve wanted to have a beautiful life, but I truly didn’t know how beautiful that life could be until I met you.”
The tennis pro previously gave Us Weekly insight into when he knew he was in love with Kelsey.
“With Kelsey … you go back to the last time she really started expressing things, almost back to Montreal. We were going a lot of off feelings, but there wasn’t really words being exchanged, so I did hold it in for a while,” Joey said after the Women Tell All taping earlier this month. “We both agree [that] when she was falling in Montreal, I was falling too. … I never said it to her because I wanted to be intentional with my words. But it was really after our second one-on-one in Jasper, how just great that day was, how much we were starting to continue to see things move forward and not take any steps back. That was when I kind of truly knew that I was falling in love with her.”
Joey is the latest Bachelor to get engaged during the finale, with season 27 star Zach Shallcross still engaged to winner Kaity Biggar. The show’s stats could be on the rise after a rocky decades-long history. While season 26 lead Clayton Echard briefly dated Susie Evans post-show, he is currently single. Season 25 star Matt James is dating his final rose winner, Rachael Kirkconnell, but opted not to propose.
Season 17 Bachelor Sean Lowe remains the only Bachelor to marry his “winner” — Catherine Lowe — but season 13 Bachelor Jason Mesnick and season 22 Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. are both happily married to their technical runner-ups, Molly Mesnick and Lauren Luyendyk, respectively.
