The Bachelor’s Joey Graziadei’s Dad Opens Up About Coming Out as Gay to His Kids: ‘It Was Difficult’

Joey Graziadei teamed up with his dad for an honest conversation about The Bachelor star’s childhood. Nick Graziadei opened up about coming out as gay when his three children were young and how divorce affected their family.

Joey, 28, and his sisters, Carly Monzo and Ellie Graziadei, were in elementary school when their parents split after Nick came out as gay. “It was difficult, absolutely,” the dad of three admitted on the Thursday, May 9, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “On top of that, and this is what I struggle with, is [it was] when my ex-wife was diagnosed with MS, so that was a lot too.”

Nick said that he didn’t feel like it was “fair” to divorce Joey’s mom, Cathy Pagliaro, while she was going through a difficult time, but also “didn’t want [his] kids to live in a home where their parents weren’t happy.”

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Since their divorce, Nick and Cathy have maintained a close relationship, and he said he “[loves her] to this day.” However, he added, “That happiness wasn’t going to be there and that would be unfair [to the kids]. I wanted them to grow up in a home [where] 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 truthful.”

The exes kept the conversations about their split “pretty light” with the kids at first, according to Nick. “I would say I don’t remember that [first] conversation,” Joey added. “We were really young. I think mom told us we were gonna see you more on the weekends. I knew they weren’t together anymore but I didn’t necessarily understand why.”

The tennis instructor previously revealed that it took him years after the divorce to realize that his dad was gay. “My little sister was a year or two younger than me. She knew right away that my dad had a boyfriend and everything,” Joey said on “The Viall Files” podcast in March. “I thought it was his roommates. It took me a while to figure it out until, actually, I was in, I want to say, middle school.”

Things did not change in the pair’s relationship, though. “It’s just an understanding that he lived his true self,” Joey explained. “I appreciate so much that my dad did that. I just think he’s a really special person.”

Bachelor Nation fans first learned about Joey’s family history when he appeared on season 20 of The Bachelorette with Charity Lawson in 2023. After finishing the season as the runner-up, the Pennsylvania native went on to become the lead for season 28 of The Bachelor. His parents were both present to meet his final two women on the show.

Joey wound up proposing to Kelsey Anderson at the final rose ceremony. They confirmed they were still together after the finale aired in March and have since been building their life together away from the cameras. Earlier this month, they took a vacation to Hawaii with Charity, 28, and her fiancé, Dotun Olubeko, as well as season 27 Bachelor Zach Shallcross and his fiancée, Kaity Biggar.