Former Bachelor Joey Graziadei is giving out his best tips to Ilona Maher in case she is the next Bachelorette.
“So I’ve heard a lot of people want you to maybe be the Bachelorette,” Graziadei, 29, told Maher, 28, in a TikTok posted on Saturday, November 17. “But I want to train you for it, I want to get you ready.”
Grazidei handed a red flower to the Olympian. “You’re gonna act like in the rose ceremony, OK?” he said. “Do whatever you want to do naturally. Let’s see it first.”
Maher pretended to address her suitors. “Thank you all for coming,” she said. “This has been so fun and you all are beautiful. But I don’t like all of you.”
Graziadei stopped Maher, interjecting, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Good for the beginning, but let them down easy.”
Maher took Graziadei’s advice and modified her speech. “You’re not all ugly, but some of you aren’t my type. That’s fine,” she quipped. Grazaidei praised Maher, adding, “I like this. I like where you’re going.”
Graziadei then suggested the duo practice handing out roses to contestants. After Maher called Graziadei over, she said, “Your vibe has been terrible this whole time. I just don’t know if you’re for me.”
Graziadei seemed confused by Maher’s actions. “Plenty of notes,” he said. “Why would you say that if you’re giving me a rose?”
The twosome proceeded to practice again, with Graziadei telling her, “You want me to have this. You’re excited to see me. You gotta hold that. You can’t tell them everything.”
After calling Graziadei over again, Maher told him, “Take rose.” Graziadei whispered to her, “So, it’s, ‘Will you accept this rose?’”
Graziadei encouraged her to practice one more time. “Joey,” she said. “Pause. Will you accept this rose?” After Maher laughed, Graziadei said, “You gotta hug me. Make me feel like I actually deserve it.”
“Joey teaching me to be the next Bachelorette cause y’all keep spreading rumors,” Maher wrote over the video. She captioned the clip, “I think if I do it, I’ll have a real problem being nice to the men.”
Graziadei, for his part, was enthusiastic. “I think she’s ready!!!” he wrote.
Graziadei, who was the season 28 Bachelor, met his fiancé, Kelsey Anderson, on the show. Anderson, who recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with Graziadei, has been by his side amid his stint on Dancing With the Stars, where he is competing against Maher and other celebrities.
After a performance on DWTS in October, Maher was asked by Good Morning America whether she would be interested in being the next Bachelorette. “That’s what we were thinking!” Maher exclaimed during the interview with her partner, Alan Bersten. “But I don’t know if I could do it.”
Bersten, 30, pointed out that “dating 30 men would be hard,” to which Maher replied, “I’ll take that on. I will do that for America. I will date 30 men for America if that’s what you want to see.”
Maher was asked about her comments during an interview with Entertainment Tonight on November 12. “Oh my gosh, stop spreading lies. Alan and I jokingly said that last week,” she said. “Yes I will date 20 men for America. Is it 30 men? I’ll date 30 men for America.”
Bersten proceeded to set “tough requirements” for her contestants, adding that they will have to be “good in contact sports,” 5 foot 10 inches or over, and have to be a book lover. Maher quipped, “We’ll see. I don’t know Bachelorette, give me team a call.”
