Joey Graziadei was crushed by Charity Lawson‘s rejection in The Bachelorette Season 20. It was a heartbreaking breakup for Charity as well when she had to tell Joey that she was choosing Dotun Olubeko over him in the final episode; she sobbed as she broke the news.
With Charity and Dotun still happily engaged, it’s now time for Joey to find the one. That journey began in the January 22 premiere of The Bachelor on ABC. Leading up to the premiere, Joey told TV Insider how he got over Charity.
Tending to his broken heart first and foremost required returning home to Hawaii. The tennis pro grew up in Pennsylvania but has lived in Kauai since 2017, and as he tells TV Insider, “Hawaii’s a beautiful place. You get a lot of time to yourself. You get to get lost in your thoughts,” aka it was the perfect place to heal.
Time in the outdoors did a world of good for the 28-year-old reality star. Carving out additional time for “self-reflection” was also vital. This entailed rebuilding his confidence and addressing any insecurities that may have come up through the reality dating show process. Joey also spent this time preparing to watch himself on TV when The Bachelorette Season 20 aired.
“Whether that’s me surfing, whether it’s being on the golf course, whether it’s just taking time to myself at my own home in Hawaii, I had a lot of time of self-reflection,” Joey shares. “And during that time, I’m just focusing on how confident I am and who I am as a person, making sure if there’s things that I have any insecurities about, anything I’m questioning or wondering what I want to find in my person. Just thinking through how my life has been, where I’m at and what I am looking for. So I had a lot of time to self-reflect and be grateful, and just know that I’m lucky to be in this position.”
All of this internal work prepared Joey for The Bachelor interview process. When the time came to decide if he wanted to star in the long-running series — a whole different beast from being a contestant in the sister show — Joey says, “I did feel ready. So that was really what I wanted to feel was ready for this opportunity.”
Joey’s determined to find his person in The Bachelor Season 28. If you’d like to read potential spoilers about who he ends up with, we’ve got all of the details here. If you want to let the show surprise you, tune in each Monday on ABC.
The Bachelor, Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
