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Joey Graziadei has reached the halfway point on his journey to find love on The Bachelor. The tennis pro, 28, is forming strong connections with the final 6 women, and many of the women have said they’re falling for Joey. Hollywood Life spoke exclusively with Joey about his feelings at this point in the show. Was he already in love with one of the women?
“At least for the timeline right now, the answer is no,” he said. “There are feelings that are starting to develop. You will see who to the point I might say that to, [but] that comes with time. But right now, I can tell you, no, I’m not in love with anyone at this point. But feelings are starting to develop.”
As the season continues, the eliminations just get tougher. Joey didn’t hand out roses to Katelyn DeBacker and Lea Cayanan in the previous episode, and he reflected on his decision to send them home.
“I don’t know if there’s anything in particular,” Joey noted. “It’s not an out. It’s really just the truth that time is a really important thing. They were two of the women I had left that I didn’t have a one-on-one with, I didn’t get more uninterrupted time with, so I think they would also agree. You might even [have] seen it in their exit interviews. We didn’t have enough time. We never got an opportunity to see what was there fully. I don’t have any regrets on that because I knew the relationships I had with the 6 women that were left, and I was confident in them. But they’re amazing women that I’m sure if there was more opportunity or more time there could have been something that could have developed there, but I’m okay with it. I know that it’s just something that’s part of this.”
In a surprising move, Joey didn’t wait until the group date to eliminate Jess Edwards. After she opened up about her deep feelings for him, he realized his connection with her just wasn’t strong enough to continue. He bid farewell during the group date.
“I wouldn’t say I had any regret because I was trying my best to be honest and giving her as much respect as she deserves in that position,” Joey told Hollywood Life. “I think I tried to explain to her the best I could. But when someone says something like that, you want to have feelings and the ability to see it. You might not be there, but you want to be able to see it. And if I couldn’t see it at that moment, I didn’t think anything was going to change the next few days, and I wouldn’t want her to have that false hope. So no regrets. Obviously, a tough moment. I wish Jess always nothing but the best, but [I was] just trying to be honest and be as good of a person that I could to her in that moment.”
Over the last few weeks, drama has been brewing amongst some of the women. Maria Georgas famously did not see eye-to-eye on pretty much anything with Lea and Jess. Joey said he “didn’t know much about that drama” at the time and didn’t want to get wrapped up in it.
“If someone wants to bring something up to me, I’ll be able to talk through it, but I think people also saw that I wasn’t really looking to talk about the drama,” he told Hollywood Life. “I wasn’t trying to uncover much unless it felt like I was supposed to. If the women wanted to talk about our relationship and wanting to learn more about how we could be compatible and our connection, that’s what I put my energy and time into. I didn’t really try to uncover much, so I’m watching with the rest of America and finding out things with you. But it’s also a small moment of everything that happened, so I try not to be quick to judge. I try to lead with kindness as everyone else should. It’s a tough position for these women to be in.”
Joey (and the viewers) were shocked when Lexi Young left because she and Joey were not on the same timeline when it came to having kids. Due to her endometriosis diagnosis, Lexi was vocal about her desire to start a family sooner rather than later, while Joey envisioned kids several years down the road.
“I think there was a lot of things going through my head at that point,” Joey said about his reaction to Lexi’s departure. “Obviously, that was a part of the week with my own insecurities and things coming out, and I think it made sense. Me and Lexi had very important conversations, and I expressed to her how my timeline could change, especially with the right person. But she needed more than that, and as she should. It’s her feelings and her emotions of what she was picturing, and I had nothing but respect for her leaving.”
He continued, “I wish her obviously nothing but the best, but what that brought in was the idea of someone can just change their mind and realize this isn’t right for them anymore, and they have a different timeline or different thing in their head that they pictured. My biggest fear that was starting to come out was what if that happens with the person that I can’t see leave? And I didn’t know what that was going to be yet, but that kind of added to it.”
Joey admitted on The Bachelor that he had fears about ending up alone at the end of this experience. “That time in Montreal was where things got real,” he revealed. “As anyone that’s watched the show, it’s usually around that time. Hometowns [are] around the corner. It’s getting more serious, and I tried to not act like I had it figured out because I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t. I never will. So it’s more important to be honest about it, and I tried to do that with the women. I tried to do that, obviously, with my interviews to America, but I’m glad people understood it and always more to share about that.”
At the beginning of the season, host Jesse Palmer called Joey’s season “unprecedented.” In the world of The Bachelor, that’s quite a loaded word. Hollywood Life asked Joey if he could share any insight about his “unprecedented” season.
“I wish I could give you more,” he teased. “I think what I’m going to have to keep saying is that there were real emotions, and I think people will understand why it was something that was unprecedented once it gets to that point. But for now, it’s just going to have to be that cliffhanger that everyone holds on to.” The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC.
This story originally appeared on Hollywoodlife
