Bachelor star Joey Graziadei clarified his financial status after previously revealing his credit score took a big hit while he was away filming season 28 of the reality dating show.
Graziadei, 29, addressed the “viral” moment from his June 10 appearance on Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast, where he said his FICO credit score dropped 80 points because he missed a credit card payment while he was incommunicado during the show.
“There were headlines and videos that stated that I was in financial trouble. Let me set the record straight, I’m not broke, I’m doing just fine,” Graziadei said via his Instagram Stories on Monday, July 1, in a sponsored post for Credit Karma. “My credit score did in fact drop by a substantial amount when I was away on the show. This all came from me missing one small payment when I was away on the show for three months. It resulted in my credit score taking a large hit, but since that time, I’ve been able to raise my credit score. This can happen to anyone.”
While assuring fans that he was in a good place financially, Graziadei further explained his living situation with his fiancée, Kelsey Anderson.
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“I am temporarily living with Kelsey and her roommates as a choice to be able to spend as much time as possible with her as she finishes out her lease,” he said.
Graziadei ended his video by supplying followers with financial tips, including “understand how your credit scores are calculated” and “check credit scores regularly.”
Graziadei and Anderson, 26, talked about their “New Girl” living situation with her two roommates in New Orleans during their joint “Trading Secrets” appearance.
“I was still working and so I was like, ‘I gotta go back to my life. I’m not quitting my job,’” Anderson, who works as a project manager, said about her situation after leaving season 28. “He was just living with his sister, so I was like, ‘You can move in with me.’”
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Graziadei, for his part, moved in with his sister after filming wrapped, as he was previously living in Hawaii and there was “no way I could be living there with the amount that I was gonna be doing with the press, going from New York to L.A.”
While moving in with Anderson and her roommates may not be a perfect situation, Graziadei called the decision a “no-brainer” — both financially and for the good of their relationship.
“It would have been wrong of me to be like, ‘We need to get you out of your life,’” he explained about wanting Anderson to have some normality after their engagement. “Because she dropped her whole life to be a part of this. And I knew that regardless of what was going to happen, my life was going to have to change and go somewhere else.”