Joey Graziadei Had 1 Request forDancing with the Stars: A Partner Who Was in ​​a 'Healthy Relationship'

Mar. 15, 2025

Joey Graziadei.Photo:John Fleenor/Disney

John Fleenor/Disney

Joey Graziadeihad one request when joiningDancing with the Stars.

The former Bachelor — who popped the question to fiancéeKelsey Andersonon season 28 of the ABC dating show — revealed on theAlmost Famouspodcast that he wanted stop the rumor mill before it began when it came to his partner on the dance floor.

“It was something I thought about coming in,” Graziadei, 29, explained. “I wanted to be in a situation where 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.”

“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,” he recalled.

From left: Kelsey Anderson and Joey Graziadei attend the 2024 Disney Upfront at Javits Center on May 14, 2024 in New York City.Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Graziadei shared that he didn’t want the show to affect him being in “such a great place in my life with everything that Kelsey and I have built that I didn’t want to have a distraction.”

“We knew coming in as a Bachelor Nation thing,” he shared. “I think it’s understandable that people are paying attention to my relationship always, and it was something that Kelsey and I talked about. I made sure before doing this that she was comfortable with putting that into the world again.”

“I think that we were more surprised that people couldn’t step away and understand the situation of the relationship I was in, the relationship that Jenna was in. We were kind of hoping that people would be a little bit more aware of that, but we weren’t necessarily surprised,” he added.

Todd Williamson/Shutterstock for Dotdash Meredith

Graziadei was clear that there was nothing romantic between the pair, saying, “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 something that we would never be doing.”

As for Johnson, she noted, “I think it’s very obvious that my relationship is known on the show. I mean, I have a child [and] my husband’s on the show as well and I thought, you know, people would obviously know that Joey’s engaged.”

Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy.Kevin Winter/Getty Images

“So many people are like, ‘Kelsey, why is Jenna touching your man like that?’ And honestly, I don’t know… Maybe because it’s her job? Maybe because she’s a professional dancer and she has to touch him to dance? I don’t know, that’s my understanding of it,” Anderson said in aTikTokposted on Sept. 19. “I’m just so tired of everyone being like, ‘Kelsey’s so strong, I could not do this, I could not watch this if I was Kelsey.'”

“Let’s do a little recap here. Do y’all remember how Joey and I met? We met onThe Bachelor. He was dating 31 other women while he was dating me, and I won the Super Bowl ring,” she joked. “I have to have a certain level of security to go through all that, and Joey and I are still together and strong after a year of all of that craziness. Joey also has to be the type of man to give me the…reassurance that I need and deserve in our relationship. So we are all good in the hood.”

Johnson commented on Anderson’s post, writing, “That’s my girl right there 😍😍,” to which she replied, “😚 😚 😚 .”

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Dancing with the Starsairs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with episodes available to stream the next day on Hulu.

source: people.com