Joey Graziadei has officially been announced as The Bachelor star for the show's upcoming 28th season set to air in early 2024.
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"Are you ready to meet the new Bachelor?" Jesse teased at the end of the live broadcast. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your new Bachelor: Joey!"
The live studio audience cheered as Joey walked out onstage, and Jesse declared how Bachelor Nation seemed pretty thrilled about the news.
Jesse then asked the 27-year-old tennis pro from Koloa, HI, how he felt about his new gig.
"Definitely surreal," Joey shared.
"It's sinking in very slowly, but I'm trying my best just to stay present and enjoy it. But this is crazy. I'll be the first person to say, 'This is wild!' I never expected this at all, and I had no idea this was what my life was turning into."
He added, "So yeah, crazy stuff, but I'm excited!"
Jesse pointed out how before being chosen as the Bachelor, Joey had endured an emotional roller coaster on Charity's The Bachelorette season.
Not only did Charity break Joey's heart, but he was ready to propose marriage to her in the moments right before his brutal Final Rose Ceremony dumping.
But Joey insisted he was ready to turn the page and give love another shot.
"It's a great question. I'm more ready than I was in that moment [of getting dumped]," the handsome 5'10" suitor joked.
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"For me, it was just you have to take some time to get a little bit more closure. Watching Dotun and Charity's connection was enough for me. I've got so much love for that dude, and obviously for her, completely, as well."
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Joey graciously accepted losing Charity to Dotun, a 30-year-old integrative medicine specialist from Fresno, CA.
"It was just nice to be able to see someone so special be with her, and that, in general, gave me a lot more ability to just separate myself from it, appreciate it for what it was, and truthfully know that, most of all, it opened up a part of me that wanted something so bad," Joey said, referring to wanting to find the love of his life and his future wife.
"I'm in this point now where I'm prioritizing something in my life that I put on the back burners for a while, and I'm ready to prioritize it again!"
Joey went on to reveal what he's looking for in his dream partner.
"Someone that's just herself, that I can truthfully be a partner with," Joey explained.
"I want someone that challenges me, and I want someone that I can challenge. I just want someone to do life with."
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Joey proceeded to ask his future bachelorettes out there "to just be themselves." He also warned them that The Bachelor/The Bachelorette experience can be "tough."
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, there's a lot of stuff that happens and things that kind of mess with you," Joey admitted.
"But what I'm most proud of from this journey is that I had this weird inkling of comfortability and felt like I could be myself."
Joey confirmed that Charity brought that out of him, and he continued, "I'm hoping to do the same for the people that come and want to meet me. But all I can ask if for them to be themselves, and I'm just excited to get to know them."
Jesse ultimately surprised Joey by informing him that one of his Season 28 bachelorettes was sitting in the audience all evening for the conclusion of Charity's The Bachelorette season.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Jesse then welcomed Leah, a brunette beauty from Hawaii, onto the stage, and it resulted in a bit of an awkward first meeting for Leah and the new The Bachelor star.
"This is tough for you. I apologize ahead of time this is how it's going to start," Joey told his future contestant.
"But this is a lot you had to do. I'm just excited. Thank you for being here and I can't wait.
I've been in your shoes and I know it's a little weird."
Leah said she was "really excited" to date Joey after watching him carry himself with "grace" on Charity's The Bachelorette season.
"I think we have a lot in common and I'm kind of excited to explore that," Leah noted. "Maybe we can eventually come back home [to Hawaii] with each other. I've been kind of homesick... and also, congratulations. I think this is going to be an awesome journey for you."
Joey called Leah "beautiful" and complimented her for having so much poise on the live broadcast.
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Jesse then said he had "a surprise" for Leah, something that was going "to change everything."
Jesse handed Leah an envelope with something inside that will "help" her on her The Bachelor journey, but the host said she couldn't open it until Night 1 of filming.
Charity eliminated Joey in second place during the final day of filming in Fiji. Charity dumped Joey even though she had admitted she was "in love" with him and could see him as her husband.
Joey sweetly comforted Charity as she cried during their breakup, and while he tried to choke back his own tears, he bawled following his departure.
"I was envisioning our life together. I was getting down on one knee. I thought it was happening. I was certain; I had zero doubt," Joey said in his final words. "I wanted to leave here with Charity, it's all I wanted. And she gave me every reason to believe it."
Joey said he felt ready to get engaged and it was just taken away from him with the snap of a finger. Joey then asked the universe, "When is it going to happen for me?"
Well, clearly Joey's chance to find love again is going to happen very soon!
Before The Bachelor premieres its new season in early 2024, ABC will air Season 8 of Bachelor in Paradise and its new spinoff, The Golden Bachelor, beginning Thursday, September 28 on ABC.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
