Joey Graziadei has proven that he’s a king amongst men after ensuring that his relationship with fiancée Kelsey Anderson would be at the forefront of his mind throughout his Dancing With the Stars season 33 journey.
Prior to slipping on his dancing shoes, Joey was a contestant on The Bachelorette‘s 20th season, where he finished as the runner-up. Having stolen the hearts of viewers all across America, he went on to become the lead of The Bachelor season 21, which resulted in him meeting and ultimately proposing to his now-fiancée. He has now returned to our screens as a part of DWTS, and while he’s had a great deal of success so far — earning a combined 43 points from the first two weeks of the show ⏤ he’s also making sure to keep things beautifully classy, nipping a common problem in the bud before it had a chance to snowball.
Joey Graziadei’s unique Dancing With the Stars request
Before beginning his DWTS journey, Joey gave the producers a very specific request: he told them that he wanted a dancing partner who was in a “successful and healthy relationship.” As we now know, this partner ended up being Jenna Johnson, who is married to fellow DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy.
On The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast — hosted by Bachelor Nation fan-favorites Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti — Joey and Jenna explained why this pairing was important. “It was something that I thought about coming in,” Joey said. “I wanted to be in a situation that I was comfortable, that 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.” He made this decision as a result of the rampant rumors that tend to accompany certain DWTS pairings, but despite the precaution, rumors of a potential relationship between Joey and Jenna have sparked anyway.
The duo’s chemistry on the show, specifically during their Rumba in week 2, is partially to blame, but the rest, according to Jenna, comes with the show’s territory. She referenced the relationship rumors that had previously circulated between her and Jojo Siwa during season 30 despite Jenna being straight, married, and nine years older than the “Karma” singer. As for how Joey’s fiancée has been feeling about the situation, she took to TikTok to share her true thoughts.
Kelsey responds to Joey’s ‘other relationship’ rumors
Thankfully for Joey, Kelsey has been extremely understanding of the whole situation and has acknowledged that fans of the show should knock it off with the rumors. “Joey and I met on The Bachelor,” she said in her video. “He was dating 31 other women while he was dating me, and I won the Super Bowl ring. No, I’m joking, but I have to have a certain level of security to go through all of that, and Joey and I are still together and strong after a year of all of that craziness.”
She went on to confirm that her Bachelor experience has given her a thick skin. “If I can survive that, I can survive watching him dance with a married woman — with a cute little baby boy — crushing it. I am very proud of Joey. I think that everyone should be. He is killing it.” Naturally, this caused a swell of positive replies in the video’s comments section, with onlookers praising Kelsey for her maturity.
Ever since the video was posted to TikTok, relationship rumors between Joey and Jenna have thankfully subsided. “Hopefully, we can just get to enjoying and having fun and focusing on our dances each week now,” Joey said. Jenna also confirmed that things have gotten better and that Kelsey is “incredible” and has been “so supportive during this whole experience.”
With showmance rumors seemingly squashed, you can see what Joey and Jenna do next when DWTS returns on Monday, Oct. 7, with Soul Train Night and continues Tuesday, Oct. 8, with Hair Metal Night at 8pm ET/5pm CT on both ABC and Disney Plus.