Preparing to send someone home is a daunting task on The Bachelor. It’s good, in that case, that its star, Joey Graziadei, gets advice from host Jesse Palmer and other members of production. The Season 28 star tells TV Insider that there have been several moments this season when Jesse helped Joey stay true to his feelings when it came time to dish out the roses.
There was an early elimination in The Bachelor Season 28 Episode 6 on Monday, February 19. The first to go home was Jess Edwards. After a group date in Montreal didn’t go as she’d hoped, Jess expressed her growing feelings for Joey and her displeasure that she wasn’t getting much alone time with him. Sadly, there was a reason for that. Joey revealed in this conversation that he didn’t reciprocate Jess’ feelings, and she was sent home right after. The rose ceremony wouldn’t take place until later that night.
A spur-of-the-moment elimination is a hard move to make, but these tough calls aren’t ones Joey is making by himself, despite what the cameras may show.
“At the end of the day, it’s always going to be coming from myself and making sure that I’m leading with my heart and what I think is best,” Joey tells TV Insider, “but I’m so lucky to have people like Jesse and other people that are around me on the show to be someone I can talk through some of these moments with and make sure that I don’t feel alone, even though it’s going to be my decision at the end of the day.”
Joey says that Jesse’s care for the series leads extends off camera. “He was so great to be able to connect with, because not only has he been through it before, but he’s seen a lot,” the tennis pro explains. “He’s just a very caring person. I could tell pretty early on how much he was actually interested in helping and being invested and wanted the best for me. That’s all you can ask for.”
Joey is able to prepare for difficult eliminations in part because of advice from the former NFL star, who convinced him that vulnerability is a worthwhile feeling, even if it’s an uncomfortable one.
He said to “give yourself a little grace to realize that this is a very difficult situation you’re in,” the reality star explains. “He also really was the one that tried to explain to me how much more positive it would be to be vulnerable, to not act like you have it figured out, to just show a different side of yourself to the women because they will appreciate that and it will open up everyone’s feelings. Jesse had nothing but great advice, and I tried as much as I could to talk to him about those things.”
Daisy, Kelsey A., Katelyn, Rachel, Lea, Jenn, Maria, and Kelsey T. are shocked by elimination in The Bachelor Season 28 Episode 6 rose ceremony (Disney/Jan Thijs)
The 28-year-old had a hard time sending Jess home, but he knew it was the right decision to make out of respect for both of their time and energy. Later in the episode, Lexi Young self-eliminated over their differing timelines for having kids. Lexi has endometriosis, which makes conceiving a child harder the older she gets. Given that, she wants to try to have children sooner than Joey, who envisions being engaged and then married for several years before having kids.
The other two women eliminated in Episode 6 were Katelyn DeBacker and Lea Cayanan, who were sent home in the rose ceremony. Joey deepened his connections with Kelsey Toussant and Maria Georgas in the episode, taking them each on romantic and emotionally revealing solo dates. It’s never easy for Joey to let the women down through eliminations, but he takes comfort in knowing that he’s honoring his feelings when making his cuts each week. The pressure doesn’t die down, however.
“I put more pressure on myself than I probably should, and it’s something I work through and I’m going to continue to work through,” he says. “But I try not to shy away from talking about it because I can’t be the only person that feels that way. And I don’t want it to be something where I’m trying to act like I have it figured out when I know I don’t.”
Being an athlete “definitely” has a lot to do with this pressure to please, but The Bachelor, he says, is “impossible” to do perfectly.
“You have high expectations of yourself where you’re the only person on the court and you’re competing,” he explains. “I’ve always been competitive in that sense, and I’ve always looked to be the best at what I was doing when I was doing it. As for how that works in normal life, in the real world, it’s when you do something, I want to do it 100 percent and I want to make everyone around me proud. And this is something that’s so different, that some would say is impossible to do in a lot of ways, and I’m just trying to do it the best I can while being myself.”
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This story originally appeared on TV Insider
