“My Heart Still Belongs to Kelsey” — Bachelor Star Joey Graziadei Reveals the Quiet Moments That Proved She’s His Forever, Calls Her ‘Marriage Material in Every Way’

Joey Graziadei has his own definition of “marriage material” — and Kelsey Anderson fits the bill.

The Bachelor alum proposed to Kelsey, 27, during the season 28 finale of the show, which aired in March 2024, and they’ve been living life together ever since. On the Wednesday, July 30 episode of podcast Boyfriend Material with Harry Jowsey, Joey, 30, revealed the two things that make someone “marriage material” — and said he’s found both in his costar-turned-fiancée.

After host Harry Jowsey raised the topic, Joey offered a thoughtful response, starting with “I think that's different for every person.”

“For me, I think marriage material is …. First, the biggest thing is the choice of wanting to be with someone else,” Joey said. “Like, choosing to be loyal and committed because relationships are hard.”

"You have to choose that,” he explained, adding that to be “marriage material,” one has to think: “I am putting everything into this relationship and I know there's going to be tough times and I'm not going to run away from them."

"So I think loyalty is the biggest thing I would say for marriage material," The Bachelor alum told Jowsey. But it is not the only thing, he went on to explain.

"And yeah, I would say just trying to have the feeling of having fun, like knowing that life is going to throw so many different things and just enjoying life with someone,” he said. “And I think I got both of that in the person I'm with, which I'm stoked.”

Following their on-screen engagement — and stint of secrecy in the “in-between period” while it aired — the couple opened up to PEOPLE about their relationship, and revealed that they planned to have a long engagement. (Kelsey even put a loose time frame on it, telling PEOPLE she suspects she and Joey will stay engaged for two or three years.)

"We want to promise our lives together, but we don't want to rush it," Joey said in March 2024. "It's time now to enjoy this. We have the rest of our lives to celebrate it. We're going to take it day by day and just enjoy this time."

In the same interview, The Bachelor alum also raved about his fiancée, and why they work so well together.

“I have a tendency sometimes to take things too serious, to overthink things, to just kind of not be able to sometimes let it be what it's going to be, and she does that with ease,” he said. “She just has this fun energy about her. No matter whoever she meets in the room, she makes them feel seen and special, and has this bright light about her. I've always said, ‘I can't imagine how I wouldn't enjoy life when I have her by my side.’ "

Kelsey, meanwhile, said she knows Joey will not only be a good husband, but also a good dad.

“He's going to be an amazing father,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “Joey is very intentful with his words and his actions. He really grounds me. Through this whole experience, I saw so many qualities in him that just really struck me. A lot of those qualities were what my dad showed and I saw them in Joey, which my mom always told me, ‘You need to find somebody that has the same qualities as your dad,’ and I do feel like I found that.”