And the final rose goes to… Kelsey Anderson.
The newest bachelor, Joey Graziadei, 28, has chosen Kelsey Anderson, a junior project manager from New Orleans, to be his fiancée in the jaw-dropping Season 28 finale on Monday.
The pair has gone through ups and downs throughout the show, including group and solo dates, relationship doubt — and plenty of tears.
After “The Bachelor” host and former Bachelor (Season 26), Jesse Palmer, gave viewers a dramatic sneak peek of the season’s finale, viewers of the show had no idea who Graziadei was going to choose in the end.
“Like I said, you’re never going to see it coming,” Palmer said to a room of shocked fans during the “Women Tell All” episode.
Anderson, who grew up in Germany on a U.S. military base, was first introduced to viewers when she stepped out of the limo with a voodoo doll.
“So I am from New Orleans, Louisiana. And so I brought something, so that no matter what, you’ll fall in love with me,” Anderson said while showing a small Graziadei voodoo doll.
During fantasy suite week, Graziadei and Anderson shared time alone on a small boat exploring Tulum, Mexico.
“The way that Kelsey makes me feel is different,” said Graziadei. “She has this light and energy that I just feel so lucky when I’m around her.” He even went on to say that he could picture a future with her and told her that he was falling in love with her.
All that took a turn when Anderson started to doubt herself while Graziadei was on his other two dates.
Anderson stopped by Graziadei’s room and left him a note, saying that they needed to talk. “It was a conversation that needed to be hand before going into the Rose Ceremony,” Anderson said during episode 8.
With doubt clouding her mind, Anderson wanted to let Graziadei know how hard it was not seeing him every day and how much she missed him when he was not there.
“When I do get to that point of thinking something so bad can happen, I shut down,” he said. “It makes you question everything.”
She replied: “If I could do it over again, I would have wrote the letter differently.”
Graziadei’s runner-up, Daisy Kent, meanwhile, is an account executive from Becker, Minnesota.
Kent has been an advocate for hearing loss, in part because she has Ménière’s Disease, which can cause a person to get dizzy and have trouble hearing.
The 25-year-old received a cochlear implant last year after losing her hearing, which she believes may have been triggered by Lyme disease.
Kent said that she did not dated anyone since getting her implants.
“And so I’m super nervous. But I feel like Joey has a huge heart. He seems very genuine. And I’m excited to meet him,” Kent said during her introduction in the first episode.
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During the hometown visits, Kent told Graziadei that she was falling in love with him, and he reciprocated the same feelings.
“When I talk about her, I light up because I really get excited to see her. And to get more time with her,” he said at the time. “She has made me feel that something can continue to grow.”
Graziadei first captured the hearts of TV audiences when he was cast on “The Bachelorette” in 2023.
He was the runner-up after “Bachelorette” Charity Lawson ended their relationship during the season’s finale.
“I never thought I’d get to the point of getting ready to get engaged to someone and worry about it not being me,” Graziadei said after watching the episode. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Before going on a dating show on national television, the tennis coach told The Post that he stayed off of dating apps and took a more traditional approach to meeting women.
“I’m not a dating app guy. My entire life I’ve always been [meeting women through] mutual friends, trying to find people through natural situations. I always felt very uncomfortable trying to do those apps. I think my overall hours have to be less than a week on one of those things,” Graziadei said.
After nine weeks of group dates, crying, blind-sided departures, and an unexpected finale, Graziadei found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
