The Lawson Charitable Foundation in The Bachelor and Dutton finale

“In the beginning, back in my hometown, I said I was falling in love with Dutton. It wasn’t shown, but at that point people were really locked in.”
Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Despite the shortened number of episodes in the season, The Bachelorette She succeeded in getting a rare, asymmetrical fairy tale outfit that ends on August 21st. Do not disintegrate! No social media scandals! Just… two sexy people plan to walk down the aisle just in time. Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko became engaged in Paradise Fijian and confirmed, months later on a live taping of the programme, that they were still happily together as a couple and their goal was to start a family. “Dutton says this nice thing about me, that I drive with love,” Lawson now tells me. “It’s something I’m very talented at doing, and it makes sense in my line of work. I love people.”

Lawson, a 27-year-old therapist from Georgia Dancing with the stars In just a few weeks, the brilliant Neil Lane will be attracting. The decision to jig, she says, reflects the woman the franchise has embraced as its frontrunner—a woman who transcends bullshit to forge trust and intimacy with contestants. It hopes viewers, perhaps in retrospect bachelorette Evaluation, you will be able to see such a criterion above all. “I’m not into foolishness. It set the tone for me being an all-encompassing person looking for love,” Lawson explains with a smile. “At the end of the day, I’m going to make mistakes and mistakes. I’m not perfect. I don’t want any bachelor who comes after me to think it has to be like this. I learned that from my ex-bachelors. Nobody does this perfectly because there is no way to do it perfectly.

I have given Only nine episodes To form a meaningful romantic relationship. Did you find this unfair?
I don’t want to say “unfair”, but I was a little surprised. I was like, Good. But what can I do about it? I just had to deal with it. Once I understood that, I realized that I had to be more intentional about how I used my time with each of the men.

Have you ever told why your season was shorter?
I wasn’t. I assume we have a stacked fall schedule Golden Bachelor And heaven. Maybe they should have got me in there quickly. There are many Bachelor’s content.

Every relationship in Your Season has been modified, for reasons that were strategic to time and narrative. Was there a moment that didn’t break the relationship between you and Dotun that viewers would have benefited from seeing?
Yes, there were two things. At first, I said in my hometown that I fell in love with Dutton. It is not displayed. I think it would have put him way ahead of the other guys. And with him meeting my family in Fiji, I know that was really hard. It was tough, but I don’t think it was the “reality” that came out in its true form. He didn’t please anyone. My parents gave Dutton their blessing, and they were so happy for him. If it did, I think that would have made things easier.

We usually see the hero’s parents explicit to faultBut I found it interesting that your mother refused to give a definitive answer regarding the last two men. In hindsight, do you understand why I did that?
definitely. At that moment, I might have been easily affected. I made every decision up to that point myself. The biggest one was mirroring what my parents or family members said. I respect her because she gave me that space and freedom to make up my own mind and follow my heart rather than what anyone else might be thinking or seeing at that moment. I respect him, even if it’s hard to watch him again. It was hard at that moment. But I got exactly what I wanted and chose the absolute best.

I was surprised your brother didn’t take the free flight to Fiji for the final. Where was he hiding with his fake mustache?
That fake mustache was wearing the costume. He does theater on the side. Pediatric dentist by day, stage star by night. He’s had a show that’s been going on for a few weeks, and the last show was this weekend. He couldn’t leave. I was like, Can the surrogate step in? Can anyone else do that? but he was like, I don’t have time for this. He was the first person I contacted after the proposal.

Did you feel like Aaron was there legitimately to reconnect with you in Fiji or was it a ploy by the producers to stir up strife?
I honestly don’t know. I was shocked and surprised. Maybe he was called back, and he was like, Yes, let me do this. Where we left off, things could have continued to grow. That’s why you see me going through the decision-making process and trying to figure out if I should give him more time. He was not hurt. I’ve had two very strong relationships, but your feelings don’t go away overnight. so i was like, Well, why not? Let’s make sure we exhaust all things here to get the best out of it.

Besides talking to your mom, what has been the hardest thing for you this season?
Say goodbye to Joey and break up. It was hard to watch it live. I knew exactly what it was like at that moment, and it wasn’t easy. It’s upsetting to be able to bring yourself back into this situation and understand those feelings again. I know it was hard for the viewers at home to be like, Oh, it’s not Joey.

How did you and Dotun stay in touch in the interim before the finale aired? Got a “happy couple weekend” to enjoy?
Yes, we’ve had the chance to watch many episodes together and have had a lot of fun over the past few months in hiding. We’ve done things to continue to get to know each other but also to strengthen our relationship and to lay that foundation before the season starts – we talk about a lot of difficult things. I like to say “fill in the gaps”. We had our weekends together, and they were used very wisely.

What are the logistics for this type of visit?
The show does a great job of making sure we are taken care of. The whole point is that we cannot be in public. There are a lot of loopholes behind the scenes.

How stats bachelorette And Bachelor’s Relationship failure has informed your engagement and what do you want to present to the public?
It’s not really how I want to present myself to the public. I think who I am is who I am, and what we have is very special. Once we finished filming, we got full autonomy and control of our relationship, and now we’re in charge. We’ve always been in charge, but now the relationship isn’t at the cost of other things happening. Failures are on our radar. We have the tools to make sure we do what it takes to keep our relationship a priority, and that’s not going to change. The whole goal for both of us was to find love, and we found just that. We want to maintain control and prioritize each other. We keep falling more and more in love.

Have you sought advice from successful ex-bachelors in the long run?
I did. I wanted to know, What did you learn from this to tell someone else trying this crazy ride? Here’s the bigger piece: There’s the outside noise. We know that people will say what they want to say. It doesn’t matter. We’re just two.

In “Men Tell All,” I had a candid moment with Brayden as I explained how she gave him more grace than he should have. Were there any other moments this season where this attitude played out, either with the contestants or the production?
You never know what will be thrown your way. You don’t have a complete context for everything, so use the information you do have. So I actually gave myself Blessing this way while I watch the season again. Well, Charity, you could have had the rose back, but you don’t know how it will turn out. You have to be confident in that. I think I’ve done everything as I should, but also, you see me going through a heartbreaking breakup with Xavier. In that moment, I definitely felt I had handled things as best I could, but perhaps I should have acted on my instincts early on and not been so agile. Between him and Brayden, it was among the most stressful and difficult things to deal with.

You mentioned that you’d be open to having your wedding televised, which is what The first bacheloretteTrista Sutter agreed, too. To me, this underscores your desire to maintain strong franchise loyalty going forward. How do you see the development of that relationship?
We are not doing wedding planning in any way at the moment. It’s a possibility, and we’ll see. We are enjoying this season of life. If the opportunity arises, we will consider it, but I fully know that day will be very special. The wedding ceremony is very intimate. I want that moment to remain somehow sacred to us. I value the connections and people that come into my life. If I am respected and treated well, I will obviously do so in return. I’ve met amazing people here, and I hope we can keep what we’ve built. I don’t have a game plan for what’s next, in terms of chances. Who do you know. We’re definitely not trying to stay on TV. We will leave that. But the doors are open and things are going our way.

You’ve also discussed what you want your future with Dotun to look like, from moving in together to having a wedding. What about your professional future? Do you still plan to work as a therapist?
It’s a bit difficult now, as I haven’t been to work for several months. I was passionate about getting my degree in mental health counseling. I know, at some point, I can always go back to that. I still have this great passion for helping people and helping children in particular. I plan to go back sometime. I don’t know when and for how long that will happen, but I will use my degree whether it’s in an office, out of the office, or on a stand. Who do you know. But I guarantee you that this degree will not be in vain.

since 2008, The Bachelorette Between 10 and 13 episodes ran per season.