Joey Graziadei has revealed what it's been like to watch all The Bachelor drama play out on television, months after filming ended.

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The Bachelor's 28th season featured its fair share of drama, mainly because the women were very invested in Joey and were competitive about trying to win his heart.

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Maria Georgas, for example, was memorably labeled a catty, manipulative and rude "bully" by her fellow bachelorettes, but Maria insisted Sydney Gordon, Lea Cayanan and Jess Edwards were stirring the pot and misjudging her.

"It was tough. I'll be the first to admit it was tough," Joey said of watching the drama unfold  during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.

"Because you don't see everything, you don't want to be quick to judge in any way. But it's hard to see that there was this much of an issue... and these girls who were not getting along with each other."

Joey recalled telling his bachelorettes while filming The Bachelor -- around the time of his tense two-on-one date with house rivals Sydney and Maria -- that he was not expecting everyone to get along and be best friends.

"[But I did say], 'I just want to create an environment where we can do what's most important, which is getting to know each other,'" Joey explained.

But Joey admitted it's "so tough" to preach that because he's also been "on the other side" of things. Joey was referring to when he had competed on Charity Lawson's season of The Bachelorette last year.

"I know when you have all of these things that you're thinking about through this, it's so natural to let things get in the way and to think about, 'Why is this going this way?' But you have to go back to what's most important, which is you're trying to show who you are as a person and you're trying to get to know me as a person," Joey told Serena and Joe.

"And if you can't be in an environment for that to feel natural, there's always going to be what could've beens -- and I don't feel that way."

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The Bachelor star noted how he "did the best" he could to get to know all of the ladies on his season.

"But I'm sure some of the women may still feel [regret and wonder] because they let [drama] get in the way of what could have been for them to be able to show me more of who they are," Joey reasoned.

"That's the most difficult part to watch back with all this drama, is just how I could tell it definitely got to the women. And why wouldn't it have? It's a tough environment to be in, but it's tough to see that it built up to the point that it did."

Joey said he's the type of person who believes that if he was supposed to find out about a problem, he'd find out or be made aware.

"I get why people would want to bring stuff up, especially if it's affecting you, and I will always say that I think everyone should be leading with kindness throughout this... No one will see the whole story, and I don't think it's right to be cruel or any type of rude to these women because it's so tough," Joey explained.

"But the hardest part is [drama] got in the way of me at least being able to know some of these women better."

Joey claimed that he actually went into filming The Bachelor with the mindset of wanting to run away from -- and not deal -- with any conflict or tension amongst the women.

"But you know it's going to come... and I never wanted the women to feel like they couldn't bring something to me or that I don't care about their feelings or opinion about something," Joey shared.

"But also, I didn't want it [to be brought to my attention] if I didn't think it was fully necessary."

Joey therefore pointed out how he never went on a wild goose chase in the face of drama, asking multiple women, for instance, what was going on between Sydney and Maria.

"Unless someone brought it to me, I wasn't going to talk about it. But if they did, they're valid for having those emotions and feelings, and I didn't want them to feel like I was going to dismiss them," Joey noted.

"But yeah, I was definitely not looking to talk about that... I'd never [search for it]."

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Joey also revealed that it's been eye-opening to watch his bachelorettes in group settings on the show.

"I didn't see any of the interviews that the other women were having. I didn't see the full dynamics. All of this is new for me. You only get a glimmer of all of it, just a little piece, and I know I'm never going to see the full extent of it," Joey said.

"But yeah, it's always weird to watch back and realize, 'Oh, that was bigger than I thought it was,' or, 'This actually wasn't that big of a deal.' You can kind of see what the girls hold onto more and what they're conversating about and what's going on from week to week."

Joey just wishes the women could have focused on their connection during those moments, adding, "There are things that you didn't see that you see now, and it's always interesting to watch back."

When asked if he thought some of his bachelorettes were on The Bachelor just to be on a reality TV show -- and not to establish a genuine connection with him -- The Bachelor star replied, "That's tough."

Joey noted how some of the women didn't receive a lot of time with him due to production constraints and so maybe they felt like they were just filling space, much to his dismay.

"But I do feel lucky with this season in general, there were so many amazing women that when you start to have those conversations and you start to open up, you do make a connection and you do feel like they're not just 'there,'" Joey recalled.

"But I'm sure some of the women will admit that they felt that way through the process because we just didn't have the ability to have more time to get to that."

But Joey confessed that he could "kind of feel" when a bachelorette wasn't going out of her way to make the connection go any further.

"But I will say with this season, it did feel like there were a lot of women who were invested and who were interested in making a connection," Joey insisted.

From a contestant's side, however, Joey noted how "you can feel that a lot more" because you're around the group all the time with a lot of downtime.

"When I was in the setting of seeing them on dates, especially group dates, there were a lot of different dynamics going on that I tried to pay attention to as much as I could, but it's hard," Joey recalled of being on The Bachelorette.

"It's hard to catch all of the cues [as a lead] that you catch when you're a contestant."

The Bachelor just featured Joey eliminating Maria and choosing Daisy Kent, Kelsey Anderson and Rachel Nance as his Final 3 bachelorettes.

The next The Bachelor episode will air on Monday, March 11 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

Click here to learn more about Joey's The Bachelor bachelorettes or click here to read spoilers that reveal how Joey's season ends and who he picked as his winner.

Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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