Bachelor Nation fans got to know and love Joey Graziadei and his family during his time on “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.”
While Joey was on the Bachelor Nation shows, he discussed his parents’ divorce and his dad’s journey to self-acceptance as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Now, Joey and his dad Nick stopped by for a candid conversation on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, where they opened up to Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt about the divorce, their family, and more.
Joe and Serena asked Nick if it was difficult getting divorced and coming out with three young kids.
Nick said, “It was difficult coming out, and that’s when Joey’s mom and my ex-wife was diagnosed with MS. That was a lot, too. On top of making the decision to come out, her getting sick made me feel like, ‘What am I doing here? This isn’t fair.’ At the same time, I didn’t want my kids to live in a home where their parents weren’t happy.”
He went on, saying, “I love my ex-wife still to this day, but that happiness wasn’t going to be there, and that would be unfair to them. I wanted them to grow up in a home that they were happy. It wasn’t easy, but my goal was that I didn’t want my kids to live in an environment where people weren’t really truthful.”
Nick shared that his ex-wife Kathy was great with the kids throughout the entire process, and while they talked to their oldest child together, they waited until Joey was a bit older to get into more of the specifics.
Nick said, “As far as conversations went, it was pretty light in the beginning, and then when Joey was 10, he figured it out.”
Joey’s dad gushed about his son and his emotional maturity, saying, “I think my son is beyond me. Being a kid of a divorced family could be a bad experience or something that really traumatizes somebody, or it ends up being something they really learn from. Honestly, Joey has been in a world where he saw us divorced when he was not even five yet. I was not living in his home, but I was always there and then he moved to another area a few years later. We always kept in touch, but to this day, I always say to my kids that I feel so bad and wonder if I messed things up.”
He continued saying, “I feel so bad I put them through that, but the takeaway that I’ve gotten from them is that my kids are who they are today, not in spite of the position we put them in, but because of it, and having two different parents to bounce ideas off of. And Joey has been lucky to have almost three parents because you know Big Joe his uncle is another guy who’s there. Joey has really grown into the person he is because he’s been exposed to so much and that’s what it is. It’s everything he’s been exposed to that’s made him who he is.”
Joey chimed in during the conversation and reflected on when he realized why his parents got divorced and what he learned from his dad’s coming out journey.
The former Bachelor said, “I don’t know when I actually figured it out. I still try to think back and remember how old I was. I don’t remember that conversation either. I know we were really young and I think it was more our mom who mentioned we’d see dad more on the weekends and the move happened. I knew they weren’t together anymore, but I didn’t necessarily understand why. Those conversations came on later on in life. When I did finally understand it, a lot more started to come together and it made me more of an understanding person.”
Joey also gushed about his dad and what he learned from his dad’s side of the family that’s shaped him who he is today.
He said, “You can tell my dad doesn’t give himself any credit for the emotional intelligence that I have, but my whole family, especially my dad’s side is extremely loving and extremely open. The one thing that they taught us really early on is you never stop loving on your family. They have always been open and loving. The affection they show is almost too much sometimes. It’s how they are and it’s always been obvious from a young age that it’s always ok to express emotions. That’s what my dad has taught me the most throughout our lives.”
We love how open and honest Joey and his dad are, and we know that them sharing their story will help so many other families feel more seen.
