The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei Is Avoiding His DMs
After one look at his hidden requests folder, he knew he “could never go in there again.”
Joey Graziadei’s Instagram comments section is a lawless land. Scroll beneath any recent photo on his profile and you’ll see things like “It’s so unfair that I can’t have him,” “There’s still time to cast me,” and “I’m at work Joey…. Jesus.” The 28-year-old star of The Bachelor’s newest season is being called “the hottest Bachelor ever,” but according to him, he’s not all that aware of the online thirst.
“I do my best to stay out of that comment thread and stay off the DMs,” Graziadei tells Elite Daily. “There’s nothing good for me there. I appreciate all the love that I’m getting, but I know better than to go down that territory.” In fact, he only recently discovered the hidden folder of his DMs. “I had no idea there was a button for hidden requests, and someone showed it to me. When I clicked that, I knew I could never go in there again.”
The Pennsylvania native, who has spent the last two years living in Hawaii and teaching tennis, “never expected” the life-changing trajectory he’s been on since last summer. After finishing as the runner-up on Charity Lawson’s season of The Bachelorette — and enduring a devastating on-camera breakup on the day when he thought he’d be proposing — Graziadei was the obvious choice to take up the mantle as the show’s next lead. As Bachelor Nation loyalists can attest, there hasn’t been a star who stirred up this much anticipation from fans in years.
Still, Graziadei, who is currently in New York doing press for the show, insists that people are more civilized when he’s out grabbing coffee IRL. “There are moments where people recognize me, and it’s odd, but it’s cool when they want to take a picture or say something,” he says. “I don’t think I get noticed that much. … People are a lot bolder on the Internet.”
When the season premieres on Monday, that might be about to change. “It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things,” Graziadei says of what his life is like right now. “I’m just trying to soak it all in. Watching all this back, I hope it feels a lot like what I remember.”
He’ll be watching the season but avoiding social media — at least for the most part. One DM Graziadei did read was from the artist Chelsea Cutler, who messaged him and two other Bachelorette contestants after seeing them on the show. “Me and John [Buresh] and Sean [McLaughlin] were big fans, and she reached out to all of us,” he says. “Now we have somewhat of a relationship with her and have gotten to become friends.”
As for his hidden requests (sorry to anyone whose message ended up there), they’re staying that way.
The Bachelor Season 28 premieres Jan. 22 on ABC and the next day on Hulu.
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