The Bachelorette winner Dotun Olubeko has revealed that he really didn't want to appear on the show and almost didn't go through with it.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dotun said on The Bachelorette that he felt like he was called to join the show's Season 20 cast for a reason.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
And The Bachelorette fans found out during Monday night's finale broadcast that the reason must have been the fact Dotun and the show's star, Charity Lawson, are meant to be together.
"Shivers went through my body when I think about that," Dotun said on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning America.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I will never be able to really express how grateful I am for the forces that be, that brought us together."
Dotun admitted, "I did not want to do [the show], but something just kept telling me to do it. My heart is going to burst open just thinking about!"
Charity selected Dotun as her winner over runner-up Joey Graziadei -- who was just named the new The Bachelor star -- during her final days in Fiji, and then Dotun and Charity got engaged.
On Dotun's romantic marriage proposal that took place at the Final Rose Ceremony, Charity recalled how she had "blacked out" a little bit.
"The intentionality in which he speaks, like, every single word has so much weight and so much meaning," Charity gushed.
ADVERTISEMENT
And Dotun joked, "She one-upped me. I was kind of upset. I was like, 'Hold up, this is supposed to be my turn!' I'm totally teasing, but no, it was so beautiful."
When asked what it feels like to finally be an engaged couple out in public, Dotun replied, "It's hard to put into words."
While Charity and Dotun are not rushing wedding planning, they said on GMA that a wedding will happen "soon" and it may take place in Nigeria, where Dotun and his parents are originally from!
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Dotun first dished about how he was cast on The Bachelorette during a July appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Honestly, I got on [The Bachelorette] only two weeks before filming started," Dotun revealed.
"It was a really short time period, apparently one of the shortest, I've been told. It was just happenstance where someone dropped out and someone thought of me to fill that role."
A friend apparently recommended Dotun as a cast member and so Dotun "jumped in at that two-week point."
"So I was going through that [casting] process for those two weeks, and I was kind of unsure if I was really going to go through with it. It was so [last minute], I didn't have time to think about it," Dotun explained.
But Dotun explained that watching Charity on The Bachelor: The Women Tell All for Zach Shallcross' season changed his mind and gave him the push he needed to commit to becoming a contestant.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It was truly seeing Charity on The Women Tell All for Zach's season. I was watching it because they were going to announce the Bachelorette, and I was like, 'Great! Maybe this will shift my mood or shift my decision,'" Dotun recalled.
"I was looking at all these beautiful girls from Zach's season and they're all smart and they're all amazing. I was like, 'This is great.' But nothing was doing it [for me]. I was like, 'Can I really pour my heart into something like this?'"
But then The Bachelorette host Jesse Palmer announced Charity as the franchise's leading lady for Season 20 at the end of the broadcast.
"I saw Charity and I was a fan of Charity. I saw her and I was like, 'There is something about this person that...' I don't know. It felt like my soul was speaking, like, 'Hey, you should go for this,'" Dotun shared.
The Bachelorette suitor added, "And so as soon as I saw her, that was kind of the deciding factor, truly, for me to be like, 'Okay, I am actually going to go through with this.'"
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Dotun admitted that earlier that morning, hours before The Women Tell All aired, he was pretty sold on the idea of staying home and resuming his normal daily life.
"That morning... I was certain I was not going to [go on the show] because it was too short [notice] and financially -- for work and my career -- it just felt like it wasn't the right timing," Dotun said.
"But once I saw Charity at the Tell All, I was like, 'Okay, I think something is telling me to go.' And so that's why I went for it."
When Joe asked for clarification on whether Dotun had applied for The Bachelorette or was nominated, Dotun replied, "Neither."
The Bachelorette bachelor explained how two weeks before filming started, he was doing some work and happened to receive a text message from one of his roommates, who apparently had a connection to The Bachelorette production or casting department.
ADVERTISEMENT
"He was like, 'Hey, do you want to go on The Bachelorette?' I thought he was kidding because we mess around all the time... I was like, 'Haha, you're funny,'" Dotun said.
"And he was like, 'No seriously, send me pictures.' Long story short, within an hour, I had one of the casting agencies reach out to me."
Dotun said one of Charity's original bachelors -- who had been nominated for the show -- dropped out for work or for personal reasons, and so his roommate thought Dotun would make a great replacement.
Dotun therefore said "yes" to the opportunity and finally decided to participate in the reality dating competition.
Dotun shared with Serena and Joe how he looked at The Bachelorette as a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
"Going through that [casting] process, it's tough to do in two weeks, but things just kept working out, just enough, as if [someone] was telling me, 'Don't close this door. Try to pursue this and consider this,'" Dotun shared.
"So as much as I'm a logical person, I do have a side of me that believes in fate and bigger things, and I try to let that be a driving force for some of my decisions. I still try to be thoughtful, but I definitely let [fate] influence me."
Dotun concluded, "And I know that, for me, some of the most cherished things that I've ever had or experienced have come from these type of situations, where I was kind of leaning towards something and then it feels like life is funneling you in a certain direction."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!