Joey Graziadei And Kelsey Anderson Are Rooting For Leslie Fhima As ‘The Golden Bachelorette’: “She Has So Much Love To Give”

The first-ever Golden Bachelorette lead has yet to be revealed, but The Bachelor‘s Joey Graziadei and Kelsey Anderson are proud members of Team Leslie.

Back in February 2024, ABC announced the highly-anticipated senior spinoff would premiere this fall, with casting announcements still to come. After The Bachelor‘s Season 28 finale aired on March 25 — with no word about The Golden Bachelorette — Decider asked Graziadei and Anderson if they’d like to see Gerry Turner’s runner-up in the spotlight.

“Yeah! I think that Leslie would be a great Golden Bachelorette,” Anderson said over Zoom. “She has so much love to give. I’m rooting for her. I really got to know her through this season and she’s awesome.”

“Yeah, she’s great,” Graziadei echoed. “They can do no wrong with who they pick in that role. But I know Leslie is someone that would do a great job with it.”

In an interview at the 2024 Television Critics Association press tour earlier this year, Bachelor producers told Decider they were hoping to cast a lead that Bachelor Nation already knew from The Golden Bachelor, which means Leslie Fhima is still in the running. Decider named her as one of our top eight picks for a Golden Bachelorette lead, and after seeing her cameo on Joey’s season of The Bachelor, we remembered just how caring she is and how invested she was in her Golden Bachelor love story.

“You and I are in the same club,” Fhima told Anderson during her Bachelor cameo in Tulum, Mexico. “I lost my mom when I was 24 — that really impacted my whole dating life.” Fhima shared some maternal advice with the Season 28 winner and admitted she was “devastated” when Gerry broke up with her because she “was really in love with him.”

Decider reported that The Golden Bachelorette was almost certainly a go back in January after casting calls and applications appeared online, but one question on The Golden Bachelorette application suggested the series didn’t have its leading lady just yet.

The final question read, “If you are male, did you watch The Golden Bachelor? If yes, which of the women did you find yourself most attracted to and why. You can list more than one.” As noted in a previous piece, the language sounded as if The Golden Bachelorette team was either using applicant answers to inform their lead decision, or they’d already selected a Golden Bachelor alum to be our first Golden Gal and were casting contestants based (at least in part) on which men are interested in her.

We’ll have to wait for an official casting announcement to learn if Fhima is our Golden Gal, but lands the gig may also have the pleasure of dating Kelsey’s dad Mark. Bachelor Nation fell for Mark during The Bachelor‘s Hometown Week episode, and during the Season 28 finale, host Jesse Palmer teased his possible future within the franchise.

When asked if she had any updates to share, Anderson told Decider she’d support her dad no matter what. “If that’s what he wanted to do, I will support my dad fully. He’s an amazing man and deserves the world,” Anderson said.

“Mark’s special, so if people get to see more of him they’ll be lucky,” Graziadei added.

While we wait for more details on The Golden Bachelorette (and Kelsey’s dad), read Decider’s full post-finale interview with Graziadei and Anderson.