Charity Lawson Weighs In on Joey Becoming the Next Bachelor: ‘Rooting for Him’ (Exclusive)

Bachelorette Charity Lawson decided to spend forever with Dotun Olubeko, which meant saying goodbye to Joey Graziadei.

Fans have expressed interest in seeing Joey, 28, take the lead as the next Bachelor, and on Monday’s After the Final Rose special, Jesse Palmer announced that the tennis pro would be officially stepping into the role. Charity, 27, and Dotun, 30, think Joey will do a great job as Bachelor.

“We truly wish him nothing but the best,” Charity tells PEOPLE. “We saw how much of a lover boy Joey is and how much he wants his person. I do believe that he is going to have no problem finding that. He is an incredible person. We’re both rooting for him and rooting for his success.”

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Dotun got to know Joey throughout filming of The Bachelorette and calls his fellow finalist “an awesome guy” because of his character.

“He’s very intentional,” Dotun says of Joey. “And I think that’s going to lend very well to the show. We’re both excited to watch that journey.”

Charity Lawson and Joey Graziadei on ‘The Bachelorette’ season 20.

ABC/Craig Sjodin

Charity admits that turning down Joey in the end put a damper on the exciting day.

“Seeing Joey was not easy, and saying goodbye was really hard for me,” the Georgia native says. “The emotions just overcame me, rightfully so. Throughout this whole journey for me, saying goodbye to anyone was not an easy thing to do, but especially at that point when you have formed some connection, that was difficult for me. I don’t want to be the person that has to contribute to someone else’s pain, but it was necessary.”

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Charity says after taking “some time to collect myself” she looked forward to seeing Dotun and accepting his proposal.

“It’s a crazy place to be in, feeling two extremes,” Charity says. “Once I saw Dotun, I was just at peace and I was so excited. I was ready to say yes to forever with him.”

At that time, though, Dotun didn’t know Charity picked him.

“As happy as I was to have the potential, part of you knows that if you don’t get what you want, you’re going to be devastated and that’s going to be a tough thing to deal with,” he says. “You realize, ‘I dropped my life and I took this risk and I found someone that I loved and are they going to choose me?’ I couldn’t speak throughout most of the day. I think I might’ve said, outside of the proposal, 10 words coherently. It was a lot of tears.”

Dotun says he “didn’t want to get my hopes up” and tried to “compartmentalize” his feelings throughout the journey.  

But, “I would say beginning of Fiji was when I was be like, ‘I think I’m going home with this woman,’” he continues. “But you don’t want to be heartbroken, so you got to be careful with that mindset.”

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Charity and Dotun.

ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

Dotun came a long way from not knowing at the beginning of the season that The Bachelorette typically ends with an engagement.

“With my story about coming in two weeks before, I didn’t have enough time to research and look into it,” he says. “I know it’s about dating, and love, and someone chooses someone at the end, but I didn’t know if you just date, or if you propose, or if you get married. I had no clue. So, it was shocking, but it was also like, if you love someone, then you should be willing to do it all.”

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The Bachelorette can be streamed on Hulu.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education