After watching Grant Ellis visit the families of three of his top four contestants on The Bachelor, Dina Lupancu is clarifying what happened during her unique Hometown Date.
During Season 29, Episode 6, Grant traveled to Chicago for his final Hometown Date with Dina. He discovered that her family, being traditional with her dad as an ordained deacon, did not approve of him dating multiple women. Despite the setback of her family not participating, Grant and Dina still enjoyed their time together with Dina’s friends, making the best of the situation.
Ultimately, Grant had to bid farewell to Dina during the rose ceremony of Hometown Week. In the “Women Tell All” episode on March 10, Dina revealed the truth about her family’s absence during the Hometown Week.
“This is something that I haven’t told anyone, and I didn’t tell Grant at the time. But it was ultimately my decision to not have my family be a part of it,” Dina explained during The Women Tell All event. “I have a really big family. Half of them were okay with it, and the other half — mostly my brothers — were not okay.”
Dina explained that half of her family felt the journey was too fast and she wouldn’t “be able to have a guy who’s been dating 25 girls be faithful to her.” She assured viewers that her family ultimately “didn’t trust the process,” so when she found out that they “were at odds with each other about it, and it was causing polarizing views” she decided to just have Grant meet her friends instead.
“I’m not going to have my family meet Grant, and the whole time I’m having to convince them of the process, and convince them that I’m ready to get engaged when I don’t know that I necessarily was convinced about myself,” Dina explained, letting host Jesse Palmer know that in hindsight, she did regret the decision “a little bit.”
Before the night ended, Grant reunited with his “stunning” 15 exes and addressed Dina for the first time since that Hometown Week rose ceremony. After she teared up and questioned if her family missing their date was a dealbreaker for him, Grant said, “Listen, you’re amazing, and you’re wonderful, and your family not being there was not the reason. It wasn’t the reason. It’s just things that I was looking for, just what was best for me.”
“If we were to end up at the end, there’s time to meet the family,” Grant continued. “I was more concerned about how you felt, because that’s something that hurts — your family not being there…I know they support you. They just don’t know this process, it’s new to them. So I wasn’t really thinking about how I was feeling. I was thinking about how you were feeling in that moment.”
Though Grant and Dina didn’t end up together, the Season 29 contestant is incredibly grateful for her Bachelor journey, because Grant helped her thaw her “ice queen” persona.
“I’m not going to be mushy gushy all the time, but I’m also not this stone-cold person, either, so to be able to do that with Grant in such a short amount of time was special for me,” Dina said. “I think it taught me that I’m able to put my walls down for the right person. I’m able to allow myself to feel things that I don’t necessarily let myself feel all the time.”
New episodes of The Bachelor Season 29 premiere Mondays on ABC with next-day streaming on Hulu.
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