After the finale of season 21 of The Bachelorette ended with Jenn Tran’s broken engagement, fans are looking to season 20 couple Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko as the spinoff’s reigning love story. And while the twosome are still going strong, they aren’t rushing down the aisle.
“We’ve taken a pause on it and I’m totally fine announcing that. I feel like people ask all the time, ‘How’s wedding planning? Or where are we at?’” Charity, 28, told Us Weekly during an exclusive interview with Kat Izzo. “For me, I got in this space where I just felt this constant pressure of, like, I need to check off something every month or every week. And it got to the point where I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna do that right now.’ I’m also still just easing into life and normalcy again. Obviously, we’re still getting married. We’re taking a moment, taking a beat.”
Charity added that Dotun, 30, “is so vocal, which I love.” She noted that her fiancé is focused on a fun reception — and the cake.
“It’s the flavor and the aesthetic [that he cares about], but I’m definitely gonna have more say of the aesthetic,” she explained. “But the flavor, that’s the one thing he tells people. He’s like, ‘Me and Charity, we figured out the flavor of the cake.’ … I’m just glad he’s involved and he wants to have a say. It makes it fun for me and for the both of us.”
Charity and Dotun got engaged on season 20 of The Bachelorette, which aired in summer 2023. That fall, Charity competed on Dancing With the Stars — which is known to test some Bachelor Nation couples. This season, Joey Graziadei, who got engaged to Kelsey Anderson on season 28 of The Bachelor, and newly single Jenn will be in the ballroom.
“[I would tell them] just have fun. I wish for myself that I was able to have a lot more fun than I did,” Charity told Us. “It starts off very fun, but then once you get in the nitty gritty, it becomes really hard. It’s a lot on your body. Kat knows — it was a lot emotionally for me [and] awful mentally. So just taking care of yourself the best way that you can, but, like, not forgetting it’s a competition show. There’s a lot of pressure that will be placed on you. And I definitely felt that for myself. I wish I was able to just be like, ‘Whatever happens happens. That’s fine. I’m here having an opportunity of a lifetime and to not take that for granted.'”
Kat noted that she hopes Jenn — who revealed at her recent finale that she was blindsided by final rose pick Devin Strader when he ended their engagement — uses the show as motivation “to just prove to herself what she’s worth [and] capable of.”
“Because if you can go through that and right after [the split], like, you could do anything,” she said. “[And] I love to get revenge in my own separate way. I’d be like, ‘Look at what you’re missing!'”
Joey, meanwhile, will have Kelsey’s support — and if Kelsey needs any help, she can call Dotun.
“It’s a lot. Obviously, Kelsey knows Dotun. She can reach out,” Charity said. “For Dotun, he was working at the time, so I think he also was able to kind of keep himself occupied. It was like we both had full-time jobs and then we made the most of the little time that we did have to have date nights and try to fit that in. So honestly for Kelsey, like, just trying to find those moments to connect with Joey as much as possible. [And] I would just tell her not to read too much into it. Be a supportive partner.”
Kat added: “I mean, Dotun was so great. He was texting all of us, like, even my family ’cause she got close with my mom. [He had us make] a video for her for the finale.”
As Joey and Jenn take the ballroom, Charity and Kat are gearing up to launch their new podcast, “Tap In.”
