Bachelor Nation
‘The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei Opens Up About ‘Difficult’ Moment in Kelsey Anderson Relationship
No longer gracing everyone’s screens as a dancing protege, Joey Graziadei is finally speaking out about what his experience on Dancing with the Stars was like. After a few weeks of reflection, he hopped onto The Squeeze podcast.
Co-hosted by Taylor Lautner and his wife, also Taylor Lautner, the former Bachelor lead was ready to give them honest answers. Yes, even about what the DWTS experience was like for his fiancée Kelsey Anderson.
“It was difficult at times,” he opened up. “It’s never a walk in the park, literally, just because of timing.” Graziadei admitted that he wanted to put more effort into their budding relationship but just physically couldn’t as much as he intended. The 29-year-old compared his dancing run to his time as a tennis instructor, working 40 hours a week.
“When you go home, the last thing you want to do is to be on again,” he explained. “It’s not like I had to be on in our relationship, but I have to be giving her attention. I have to be making sure that I am there for her fully.”
Luckily, he found a way. His “little version” included coming home and saying, “Kelsey, I need five to ten minutes to forget what was in my head with dancing and do like a reset zone and then I want to hear all about your day.”
The 29-year-old admitted, “She was so amazing and so understanding during it. I tried my best to be the best communicator I could, and I think it made our relationship stronger at the end of the day.”
Those weren’t the only things he struggled with. At the beginning of his DWTS journey, he was also bothered by “everyone’s outside opinion.” The Bachelor Nation favorite continued, “There is a lot of stuff you can’t control.”
Looking back, Graziadei called DWTS the “best decision” he has ever made. “It was hands down the coolest experience I have ever had,” he noted.
The former tennis instructor revealed that it was actually Anderson who “pushed” him to do DWTS. “I was pushing in the opposite. I was playing devil’s advocate to her, and she was like, ‘We’ll figure it out. I think you should do it.'” He emphasized, “She was the biggest reason why I was so open when I got the call.”
