The Bachelor Finale Recap: Joey Graziadei Is Engaged to Kelsey Anderson
After an emotional season finale, Bachelor Joey Graziadei is an engaged man.
The 28-year-old tennis pro proposed to Kelsey Anderson on the Monday, March 25, finale.
“I know there's a lot of tough decisions through this journey, and that's what makes today really difficult. But there is nothing difficult about choosing you. And I can't wait another minute to tell you that I love you,” Joey said during his proposal speech. “There is something about you. You have this infectious energy that makes me smile. It's a feeling I've never had before. 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.”
Minutes before the engagement, it was revealed that Kelsey rode to her proposal alongside runner-up Daisy Kent. Joey came face-to-face with Daisy first, and she broke things off after realizing that they weren't each other's person.
Earlier in the episode, Kelsey seemingly hinted at her fairytale ending, looking forward to a “spectacular” life with Joey.
“I can just see our future so clearly together that it's just so exciting to think about,” she said during her confessional. “The more that we connect, the more that we have fun and laugh and just are together, it makes it harder to think about not having that with him.”
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Even though it seemed obvious that Kelsey would get Joey's final rose, she still expressed being "terrified" over the possibility of a breakup.
"Whenever I think about the concept of it not being me, it gets me emotional," Kelsey said in a voiceover. "I want this so bad with him. But it's just scary to think that, like, everything could just be over in a second."
Joey told both women that he was "falling in love" during their respective fantasy suite dates. Earlier this month, Us Weekly asked the lead about his decision to drop an L-bomb and when he fell for 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. “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."
He added: “But as always, it’s a feeling — it takes time for you to feel comfortable to share those words and there needs to be the right space and you need to think everything through.”
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Rumors that Kelsey got the final rose were heightened when she and Joey appeared to share photos from the same background on social media in February.
“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 spoiler. “Yeah, I can’t speak to anything that’s sent because it’s not really something that I’m paying attention to.”
The Bachelor finale continues with After the Final Rose on ABC.
