The Bachelor 28 star Joey Graziadei has revealed he almost didn't participate in Dancing with the Stars and who ultimately changed his mind.
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Joey and Jenna ended up winning Season 33 of Dancing with the Stars, while Joe -- a former The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise suitor -- had competed with Jenna on Dancing with the Stars' 27th season in 2018 and got eliminated during the semifinals.
Joe recalled seeing Joey at a movie premiere earlier this year, when Joey was apparently "debating if [he] wanted to go on" Dancing with the Stars.
When asked what changed his mind, Joey replied, "You did, Joe, 100 percent!"
"Really?!" Joe asked in surprise.
"Honestly, it was talking to you and talking to [Charity Lawson] and [Dotun Olubeko] about their experience before," Joey shared.
Charity had competed on Dancing with the Stars' 32nd season with pro partner Artem Chigvintsev and they finished in fourth place.
When Charity kicked off her Dancing with the Stars season in 2023, she and Dotun had just gone public with their The Bachelorette romance, which was similar to the situation Joey and his fiancee Kelsey Anderson were in after falling in love on The Bachelor's 28th season.
"That was helpful to talk to people that have been through it," Joey explained.
"I was worried about how I was going to be and if I was even going to be able to perform and enjoy it, and I was worried about putting myself out there."
But Joey told Joe, "You gave me confidence! You said, 'I sucked and it was still so much fun,' and so that made me feel like, 'I should do it, regardless of what's going to happen.'"
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Joey praised Joe for giving him "all the confidence in the world" that Dancing with the Stars was going to be a good experience, even if he was "going to be very, very bad at it."
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Joe joked about how he wasn't very good but he had tried very hard, and Jenna agreed.
"Your dance experience wasn't the best," Jenna told "Grocery Store Joe."
But she added, "I had so much fun every day in rehearsal with you because you were just down, and we always laughed so hard... It was one of my favorite seasons. You were just so enjoyable to be around."
Joey defeated the following celebrities in the Dancing with the Stars finale: Olympian Stephen Nedoroscik, Olympian Ilona Maher, TV star Chandler Kinney, and NFL star Danny Amendola.
Kelsey cheered her man on while sitting in the audience every week, and she often defended Joey while the show was airing because people claimed he and Jenna were flirting and getting too touchy-feely with one another.
Joey had attempted to avoid those rumors by asking Dancing with the Stars if he could be paired with a pro dancer who was married or at least in a happy relationship.
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"It was something I thought about coming in," Joey told Ben Higgins during a September episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."
Joey elaborated, "I said I wanted to be in a situation where I was comfortable and I didn't have to worry about a lot of this noise. So, I asked when I got on the show to be paired with someone that was in a successful and healthy relationship."
Joey recalled of his conversation with Dancing with the Stars producers, "I said I didn't want there to be any chance of noise on this because I know that comes with the show and the territory sometimes."
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Joey said it was important not to rock the boat with Kelsey because they were in "such a great place" after The Bachelor aired.
"I didn't want to have a distraction," Joey said.
Joey also explained how he wanted to make sure Kelsey would be "comfortable" with putting their relationship back into the spotlight and "that world" again.
"I think we were more surprised than not that people couldn't step away and understand the situation of the relationship I am in and the relationship Jenna is in [with husband Val Chmerkovskiy]," Joey admitted.
"We were kind of hoping that people would be a little bit more aware of that. We want to be able to connect and have what we have on the dance floor, and have this friendship and trust with each other, without this assumption [of flirtation] that we would never be doing."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
