If you watched the season finale of The Bachelorette earlier this week, you may recall that Dotun Olubeko (Charity Lawson‘s brand new fiancé) had a less-than-ideal encounter with Charity’s family when they met for the first time in Fiji, specifically her mother.
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Charity dished about how her mother has “grown to just love and admire” her new fiancé, despite clearly preferring runner-up and future Bachelor Joey Graziadei prior to the engagement:
“[The finale] was the first time that we’ve all been able to be together in person, because he’s in New York and I’m down in the South. There have been lots of FaceTimes in between. Every now and then, we just check in with the parents. My dad is just a goober and he loves Dotun, but with Mama Vickie, she is a little bit tougher at times… She’s grown to just love and admire him, and she knows how much love he has for me.”
In the same interview, Dotun shared a fairly similar response:
“Like Charity said, she’s a very tough woman, in a good way. I do think, at this point, she sees pretty clearly how much Charity means to me and that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy. So yeah, it’s only upwards from here. We’re making progress.”
As viewers will recall, after Charity’s family spent the afternoon meeting Joey in Fiji, Dotun instantly had some big shoes to fill. Joey’s experience could not have been more perfect, with Charity admitting that the day left her feeling like she was “on cloud nine” due to her family’s praise of the Pennsylvania native.
Going into his encounter, Dotun admitted that “moments like this can make or break a relationship,” ultimately proving that he was feeling the pressure before the afternoon even began. Given how poorly the day went, thankfully it did not ruin his relationship with Charity!
@BachelorNation on Reddit perfectly summed up what we were thinking while watching Dotun interact with Charity’s loved ones, especially her mother:
“It could have just been the editing, but the vibe between Charity’s mom and Dotun seemed really off. She initially described him as seeming ‘flashy’ and ‘reminded her of type of guys Charity used to date.’ To me, Dotun doesn’t come across as flashy or anything like she suggested.
I was also surprised that even after speaking with him, she still didn’t seem to warm up to him, since he’s really charming, well-spoken, and genuine. Her whole family just didn’t really seem super into Dotun. Again, I’m sure editing can play a big role on how things appear, but in the interviews they played, Charity’s mom especially, really seemed to not be feeling Dotun.
On the flipside, she and everyone else seemed to be really into Joey. Charity’s family seemed to love Joey. Her sister also seemed to be respectful of Dotun, but also much more excited about Joey. I wonder why there was such a big difference in their impressions between the two?”
Nonetheless, Charity decided to go with her gut and accepted Dotun’s proposal, despite her mother’s inability to give her a straight answer as to who she would have preferred. If we were basing the opinion of Charity’s mother off of vibes alone, it is clear that she was a bigger Joey fan…
Speaking of the family visit in Fiji, The Bachelorette fans were devastated to see that one very prominent member of Charity’s family was missing: her brother, Nehemiah.
If you think back to the premiere of The Bachelorette season 20, Nehemiah showed up to the mansion on night one dressed in a head-to-toe disguise, ready to work behind the bar and gather the tea on all of his sister’s potential suitors.
Believe it or not, that was the only time Nehemiah spoke to Charity’s now-fiance. Dotun reflected on that moment during the exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“I spoke with him a lot. I went to the bar over and over — I’m a big guy, so I need a few more drinks to get sauced up. I talked to him a lot, and I remember when he came out [and revealed he was Charity’s brother], I was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I say?’ but I just said stuff like, “Fate brought me here. Charity seems like a great person.” I didn’t say anything bad, and I think the inside joke is that Nehemiah fell in love with me before Charity did. We had great conversations, and I believe he had nothing but good things to say about our interactions that night as well.”
Want to know the funniest part? Dotun spoke to Nehemiah more on night one than he did with Charity — the duo did not even get a chance to chat!
While Dotun did not initially hit it off with Charity’s family right away (with the exception of her brother), it looks like things are smooth sailing between Dotun and his future mother-in-law — fingers crossed that the relationship only goes up from here!