Joan Vassos Supports Kelsey Anderson Amid Fans' DWTS Concerns
Joan Vassos showed love to The Bachelor’s Kelsey Anderson amid fan concern about her fiancé, Joey Graziadei, dancing with another woman on Dancing With the Stars. After Kelsey posted a video shutting down her concerned followers, Joan popped into the comments section to lend some support.
“Don’t even listened [sic] to those people and let them doubt your love and question your’s and Joey’s commitment to each other,” the Golden Bachelorette star, 61, wrote. “This is a show and you are real life. Enjoy this crazy ride with him and only feel the joy!”
Joey, 29, made his Dancing With the Stars debut with dance partner Jenna Johnson on September 17. Kelsey, 26, said she was flooded with comments from fans that said things like, “Kelsey, why is Jenna touching your man like that?” and “Kelsey’s so strong, I could not do that. I could not watch that if I was Kelsey.” However, she made it clear that she was not concerned.
“I don’t know … maybe because it’s her job?” she said in a video posted to Instagram. “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.”
She also reminded fans that she and Joey met on The Bachelor, so she’s never been insecure about him being around other women. “He was dating 31 other women while he was dating me and I won the Super Bowl ring,” Kelsey pointed out. “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 that craziness.”
The former New Orleans resident also praised Joey for how he’s handled the situation. “Joey has to also be the type of man to give me the reassurance I need and deserve in our relationship,” she continued. “So we are all good in the hood. If I can survive that, I can survive watching him dance with a married woman with a cute little baby boy.” Jenna, 30, is married to fellow DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy, who is partnered with Phaedra Parks this season.
To conclude her video message, Kelsey gushed over how much Joey was “crushing it” on the competition show. “I am very proud of Joey,” she said. “I think that everyone should be. He is killing it. I don’t know if you all saw those hips on Tuesday, but you’ll see them again next Tuesday. Remember to vote for Joey!”
Kelsey and Joey got engaged on season 28 of The Bachelor, which filmed in the fall of 2023 and aired earlier this year. Meanwhile, Joan was a contestant on The Golden Bachelor and was then selected as the lead for the Golden Bachelorette after she had to leave the show early for a family emergency.
Kelsey’s dad, who is a widow, is one of the contestants on Joan’s season. On the first night of filming, Kelsey showed up in one of the limos to introduce the Golden Bachelorette to her father, so the women have gotten to know each other during their time in Bachelor Nation.