Joe Amabile and Charity Lawson are offering up their two cents on Bachelor Grant Ellis’ connections with his final contestants.
The Bachelor Nation alums recapped the Monday, March 3, episode of The Bachelor on the Tuesday, March 4, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast — recalling Grant’s interactions with three of the families and one suitor’s friends.
While watching Grant, 31, and Juliana Pasquarosa’s hometown date, Charity, 29, claimed that the pair are “compatible to a certain extent,” but went on to say that the former Bachelorette thinks they are missing a spark.
“They are very cute together. I love them together. I just feel like — at least watching this episode or just their relationship and how it’s progressed up until this point — I feel like they are each other’s safe space, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily the good safe space, if that makes sense. I feel like it’s the safe route or the safe option,” Charity said, to which Joe, 38, asked whether she meant they would “settle” if they were together.
“I don’t like using that word because it sounds so bad when you say it out loud,” Charity said. “We still have a couple weeks so I’m like, maybe the depth of it will progress.”
From Joe’s perspective, Juliana, 28, and Grant “really like each other” — but that’s it. “When you were talking to Dotun [Olubeko], I remember Serena [Pitt] and I were like, ‘Oh, Charity’s in love with this guy,” Joe recalled of Charity’s season 20 of The Bachelorette, to which Charity replied, “Literally.” (Charity ultimately accepted a proposal from Dotun, 32, in the season finale, while Joe tied the knot with Serena, 28, in 2022.)
As for Zoe McGrady’s connection, Joe said it “really stuck out” to him that Grant was emphasizing that he “liked” her — but didn’t drop the L-bomb. While Charity didn’t necessarily see Juliana, 28, and Grant’s spark, she shared that Zoe, 27, would be “below that.”
“I’m trying not to use incorrect words, but Zoe’s is a step below,” Charity said. “But like you said, Grant respects her. So I think to that, if you look at ‘safe’ in that sense, ‘OK, I respect you, I have a lot of respect for you, and I like you, but I don’t know if it’s anything more than this, you know.”
As for the “strongest” couple of this season? Joe thinks Litia Garr and Grant would earn that title – and Charity agreed “1,000 percent.”
“In comparison to everyone else, I feel like the conversation, substance, the depth of it, it goes beyond surface level, and that is what I’m looking for as a viewer watching this,” Charity said. “Like, ‘OK, how can I distinguish between who potentially is going to possibly be or become the fiancé, the wife later down the road?’ I feel like their conversations of what is shown at least is telling us like, ‘OK, this is like solid material, like this is a strong relationship.’”
While Litia, 31, and Grant’s chemistry is apparent to Joe and Charity, the Bachelor Nation alums didn’t see the same connection with Dina Lupancu. “It’s more of the safe friendship,” Joe theorized, while Charity added, “Like the colleague relationship.”
Despite Dina’s family opting out of hometowns, Joe thinks it wasn’t “make or break” for their connection. “I don’t think he was picking Dina ever,” Joe said. (Grant sent Dina packing at the rose ceremony.)
Dina, for her part, exclusively told Us Weekly that she realized she wasn’t The One for Grant during hometowns.
“Something that was hard for me, and I didn’t realize until I lived it, was that when you are waiting for your hometown — and mine was last — there is, like, seven days [of waiting],” Dina, 32, explained at the recent Women Tell All taping. “Before that was a travel day and then the date in Scotland, we barely got to talk. So you are talking [about] nine days when we didn’t see each other, we didn’t talk, we don’t have our phones, so you don’t have anything to continue to foster that connection.”
When Grant came to visit her in Chicago, Dina quipped that she “forgot we are dating.” She added, “I thought, ‘Could our relationship take the test of time? … Our connection isn’t as strong as I thought it was.’ That was the first time where I was like, ‘It may not be me.’”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
