‘The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei And Kelsey Anderson Share Their Favorite Happy Couple House Memory: “You’ve Got To Be Creative When You’re In A House”

After casting a record number of women, unexpectedly boosting ratings for the franchise, and delivering an “unprecedented” finale that left fans simultaneously cheering and tearing up, The Bachelor Season 28 ended with Joey Graziadei and Kelsey Anderson engaged.

Following the whirlwind of emotions and still riding their three-hour live finale high, the fiancés hopped on a Zoom call with Decider to chat about navigating Season 28 spoilers, their favorite memory from the Happy Couple House, their life-changing journey to find love, and more.

“Joey’s an amazing man. He has such a big heart and is very intentional. I think the season showed how genuine he was,” Anderson said. “He’s also easy on the eyes.”

“[Viewers] got to see a beautiful love story. They got to see women be open about who they are and uncover different sides of themselves,” Graziadei added. “It was unique. I thought it was a special season.”

From thoughts on a Golden Bachelorette lead and a potential franchise future for Anderson’s dad, Mark, to praise for The Bachelorette‘s Jenn Tran and 9-1-1‘s upcoming Bachelor crossover episode, here’s what the future Mr. and Mrs. Graziadei had to say.

DECIDER: This season was so wonderful, but I want to start by talking spoilers. I know you two accidentally told on yourselves, but the major flub this season was Reality Steve declaring Daisy the winner. Did that misinformation impact you as the season was airing?

KELSEY ANDERSON: Yeah. At first I was really excited. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re good. Nobody knows.’ But then it did get harder seeing everybody rooting for Daisy and thinking that she was with Joey. Then we accidentally slipped up, and I think it was a lesson well learned — a reminder that all eyes are on us.

JOEY GRAZIADEI: It was an honest mistake. We really thought through those videos. I made sure I was in front of a white background, and she went outside, and we thought there was just no way people would connect it, but we underestimated the sleuthers. They are very good at what they do.

Daisy may not have gotten engaged, but she certainly left the finale a winner in Bachelor Nation’s eyes. Your season had a different ending, but that moment of inviting the runner-up to the platform as if it’s a proposal only to break up always feels so cruel to me. Joey, as someone who’s been on both sides of that process, do you think the end should be less emotionally destructive for the runner-up?

JG: I will leave that to the experts. I’m not the person to answer it. I will say that I definitely know that’s a really tough moment. Being on both sides I was prepped to do that that day with Daisy and that’s where all those emotions were coming from. I felt terrible to have to put someone through that. And I know that from being on the other side how difficult that can be, but it’s part of it. We’re just happy that we had a different ending this year.

Speaking of runner-ups, you both got a chance to know Leslie Fhima from The Golden Bachelor. The Golden Bachelorette lead hasn’t been announced yet, but are you rooting for her?

KA: Yeah! I think that Leslie would be a great Golden Bachelorette. She has so much love to give. I’m rooting for her. I really got to know her through this season. And she’s awesome.

JG: Yeah, she’s great. They can do no wrong with who they pick in that role. But I know Leslie is someone that would do a great job with it.

Well, Kelsey, another star this season is your dad. Jesse Palmer said we may not have seen the last of him. Are there any updates you can share? Are you supportive of him as a future lead or contestant?

KA: If that’s what he wanted to do, I will support my dad fully. He’s an amazing man and deserves the world.

JG: Mark’s special, so if people get to see more of him they’ll be lucky.

We also learned that Jenn will be the first Asian American Bachelorette. Is there a fun fact about her that either of you can share to get Bachelor Nation excited for her season?

KA: Oh, she’s really good at making this monkey face where she pulls out her ears and like puffs out her lip. [Laughs] It’s cute.

JG: I don’t know if I have a specific fun fact, but I think people did see a little bit of how she’s goofy. She’s fun. She has a different side to her that sometimes you don’t see unless you are in the position to lead, so I think she’s gonna be someone that people are going to enjoy watching next season.

During the finale, we also got a sneak peek at an upcoming crossover episode of 9-1-1. Joey, can you tease that at all? How was your experience as an actor?

JG: I don’t know how much I can talk about that, but I know that it was crazy to be back at the mansion again. And it was it was a really fun experience getting to try to be an actor. But I didn’t really act, I was just being myself. [Laughs] I played Joey, so that was easy.

Oftentimes, members of Bachelor Nation go on to appear on other reality shows down the line. If you could be on any reality series right now what would it be?

JG: What would yours be?

KA: I don’t know that’s really hard.

JG: I’ll put a different one out there. I don’t know if I would do well, but Survivor looks like it would be a lot of fun to do something like that.

KA: Oh yeah! Actually, I don’t think I would like that. I feel like the concept’s cool, but maybe not for me. Bugs…

JG: Yeah. Not gonna work out.

I imagine one of the hardest parts of this journey is having to hide your relationship for such a long time. Is there a favorite date night or memory during that isolation period you can share with us?

JG: What’s your favorite memory?

KA: I think my favorite memory was the first puzzle that we made together, like our first big one. We got to the very end and there were two pieces missing. And it was because Joey hid a piece so he you could [Laughs] — so he could be the last one. And I also did the exact same thing. We both hid a piece so we could be the last one, and I think that just shows how stubborn and competitive we are. [Laughs]

JG: We found that out very quickly. And then the next puzzle we did, the other story is there turned out to be four pieces missing, because we tried to one up each other and we both grabbed two. It was something fun we got to do, just because you’ve got to be creative when you’re in a house. We found out that we enjoyed doing the puzzles.

What were the puzzles of?

JG: They were all different. One of the one of the producers or handlers grabbed us a bunch from a local store. One was a sunset —

KA: One was the Dodgers Stadium. A bunch of different kinds of plants.

Before I go, so many longtime fans are calling this the greatest Bachelor season ever. Joey is being praised as the best Bachelor. Having lived through it and watching it back, why do you think this season and Joey as a lead resonated so much with viewers?

KA: I definitely think I’m biased. Joey’s an amazing man. He has such a big heart and is very intentional. So I think the season showed how genuine he was. He’s also easy on the eyes. [Laughs]

JG: I won’t take any of the credit. I’ll put it on the women. I think they were amazing this year, you especially. I think it’s all for a reason. They got to see a beautiful love story. They got to see women be open about who they were and uncover different sides of themselves. It was unique. So I thought it was a special season and they can call it whatever they want. But I know I’m the lucky guy here.

This article was edited for length and clarity.