Season 20 of The Bachelorette is over, and leading lady Charity Lawson is now engaged to her one true love.
Or at least one of her true loves.
After all, when Monday night’s season finale kicked off, the 27-year-old therapist from Columbus, Georgia had already professed her love for two different men—finalists Dotun Olubeko and Joey Graziadei—and before she could start her happily-ever-after with one of them, she had to break the heart of the other.
And before she could do that, she had to send one boomerang-contestant back where he came from.
As viewers saw during the season’s penultimate episode, Aaron Bryant, who failed to get a rose back in Week 6, had flown to Fiji in hope of getting one more shot with Lawson. When the finale opened, she briefly gave him just that.
“I still see you as a wife,” he told her. “I still see you as a mother of my children.”
But when the first rose ceremony of the night took place, it was clear she didn’t see herself in either of those roles with him. In between giving Graziadei her first rose and Olubeko her second, she gave Bryant the boot.
From there it was time for the final two to meet Lawson’s family (minus her Undercover Brother).
Lawson warned her parents that she’d given her heart to both men, and that they both loved her, too. Most importantly, she had no idea who she was going to choose. But after they saw each of the men fawn over their daughter and swear devotion, they didn’t know who she should choose, either. Besides, even if mom had a hunch, she absolutely refused to say so—much to Lawson’s frustration.
So it seemed Lawson would have to make up her own mind. Still, as of her last dates with the men, she still couldn’t.
Her date with Graziadei was filled with even more declarations of love, and she told him, “I don’t have a doubt in the world.” Her date with Olubeko passed much the same, though she mentioned her fondness for Graziadei during that date, too.
Bad sign for Olubeko? Well…
Lawson woke up the next day, just before the final rose, and suddenly knew exactly which man she wanted. Viewers learned who she picked by watching first her reject the other.
Graziadei joined Lawson, dressed in a wedding-worthy cream gown, at a picturesque spot and prepared to pop the question.
“Charity, I’ve told you time and time again through this journey how I felt it’s been your story, and I would feel lucky to just be a part of it,” he said. “I keep thinking back to that poem that we created, and how much it made us realize how real our feelings were for one another. There was one line in particular that I think back to. It says, ‘I sink into you without thinking. It’s so easy, I’m scared.’ For me that just means it’s ok to lean into how comfortable this feels, even though it’s scary. I stand here now very confident that it hasn’t just been your story. It’s turned into our own beautiful love story that we can look back on and be confident of. And I really just can’t wait to see what comes next.”
However, what came next wasn’t what he expected. Before he could propose, Lawson dashed his dreams.
“I’ve never doubted or questioned how deep our love is,” she told him. “I know it’s there, and I feel it. But as crazy as it sounds, I’ve found love that’s deeper with someone else.”
Tears streamed down her face as she dumped him, and to his credit, Graziadei comforted her until he made it to the car that drove him away, where he mourned his fate with plenty tears of his own.
Meanwhile, another man was about to have a much better day.
Olubeko met Lawson on the same spot where Graziadei had seen her, but his words had a different affect on her—and it’s easy to understand why.
Not only was he the man she decided she wanted, Olubeko sealed the deal with the best proposal in Bachelorette history.
“Charity, there is so much that we’ve experienced, from our very first kiss at the mansion, where I was just like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going for it,’ all the way to conquering our fears 200 feet in the air, running through New Orleans and, most importantly, falling in love,” he said. “You have been able to make me feel so incredibly special. You’ve made me feel adored and validated and wanted. To receive that from a woman of your caliber, Charity, I don’t think you’ll ever understand what that means to me, but I’m certain that I want to spend the rest of my life showing you. I just want you to know that I’m fully committed to you as you stand here in front of me, and I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”
He then asked her to marry him, to which Lawson replied, “A million times yes!”
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