‘Bachelor’ Grant Ellis on Fantasy Suites: ‘I Handled Myself Well’ After Year of Celibacy

Grant Ellis is sharing how he navigated intimacy on his season of The Bachelor.

Ellis appeared on the March 6 episode of The Viall Files podcast, hosted by Bachelor Nation’s Nick Viall, to discuss how he felt as he got closer to a potential engagement. When it came to the Fantasy Suites, Ellis revealed he was happy with how things went.

“Fantasy Suites is really tricky, but I think I handled myself very well,” he said. “There was a lot of kisses, but I do feel like in Fantasy Suites, I really reserve myself. Because when you get physical intimacy involved, that changes things.”

“Your connection with somebody — there could be some red flags there, and then you guys have sex, and then everything's wonderful,” he explained. “So I tried to handle myself really well, and I tried to be responsible.”

Ellis, who was sent home in week six of Jenn Tran's season of The Bachelorette, added that while he didn’t commit to not having sex in the Fantasy Suites, he did decide that he wouldn’t “engage” in sex unless he already had clarity on which woman he wanted to propose to later on.

“At that point, I didn't know who was my person,” Ellis said, although he joked that he never “directly” denied being intimate at all: “I didn't say I didn’t do other things!”

Being the second Black Bachelor in the franchise’s history also put “pressure” on Ellis to break “the stereotype” that he is “a player,” which he said also impacted his mindset going into it. 

“I went in there with real intentions,” he shared. “And prior to that, I had been celibate for a year. So I got out of a seven-year relationship, and I was hurting.”

“You know, sex is great, but I wanted to make sure it was with somebody who was my person, and then we can f— all the time,” he laughed.

The most recent episode of The Bachelor showed Grant choosing his final three: Litia, Juliana and Zoe. He told Viall that each rose ceremony was “difficult,” but he knew he needed to think about who he could truly picture as his future wife.

“I tried to go in there and just lead with love, try to listen and try to have a connection with each of the ladies regardless of how far along we were in our romance,” he noted. “I really cared about them and each of their stories because you learn a lot about them.”

“The final two, they were amazing, and I had connections with both of them,” he continued, teasing the upcoming finale. “They were so different, and it just came down to what I was looking for in my life, who could I relate to the most.”

He concluded: “You think that you have to make a decision based off of, you know, what people would want or this or that, but you have to go with your heart, and I think I did that.”

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.