Bachelor Grant Ellis and finalists Juliana Pasquarosa (left) and Litia Garr. Photo:
Disney/Matt Sayles
Grant Ellis has narrowed down his pool of 25 suitors to just two: Litia Garr and Juliana Pasquarosa.
In the March 24 finale of The Bachelor, the day trader, 31, will pick a final rose recipient and possibly walk away with a fiancée.
He most recently eliminated Zoe McGrady after Fantasy Suites, claiming that they “weren’t in a place to get married.”
Despite knowing that, Grant didn’t have any idea who he wanted to propose to following overnights at Secrets Tides Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. “I’m freaking out and I’m about to make the biggest decision of my life,” he said in the March 17 episode. “I’m torn between two amazing women, you know? And I don’t know who my future wife is going to be yet. I’ve never been this indecisive in my life.”
The former basketball pro previously told PEOPLE he “led with my heart” when making decisions throughout his season, during which he learned that he can be “an empath.”
“The journey was a lot harder than what I thought it was going to be,” he admitted. “Everybody’s different, but I’m somebody who’s emotional, and like I said, I think that’s a strength for me. But in this situation where you’re fully invested into different people, it becomes a lot. So yeah, from here on out, I’m a one-woman man.”
Keep reading to find out what unfolded during the finale of The Bachelor season 29.
(Note: the most recent updates appear at the top, so scroll all the way down to start from the beginning of the show.)
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant decided to let Litia arrive first on engagement day, meaning he planned to turn her down.
“You are one of the most amazing, beautiful women that I’ve ever met and you deserve love,” Grant said to Litia. “You deserve to be treated right. This is, this is hard for me. Litia, I love you very much I want to give you everything that you deserve, but I’m not you’re person. And I’m sorry to have gotten to this point.”
Grant told Litia he hoped she didn’t view him differently after this, but she said she did.
“I’m disappointed,” Litia said to Grant. “Yeah, you’re different than I thought.”
Litia also said she’d “have a lot of questions” if she were Juliana.
“The things that you’ve said to me all along the way make this decision that you’ve made so much more devastating,” Litia continued. “For me, the switch up is crazy.”
Grant initially tried to deny changing his mind, but eventually he told Litia, “I’ll take responsibly for that.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant told Jesse that he went “back and forth” between Juliana and Litia up until arriving at engagement day.
“I could see Litia being my wife and I could see Juliana being my wife,” Grant told the cameras. “It really is having two hearts in the palm of your hand. To me it boils down to who’s the best fit for me.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant Ellis on ‘The Bachelor’ season 29. Disney/John Fleenor
Grant said that he went to sleep thinking he knew who he wanted to choose, but he woke up on engagement day feeling unsure.
“Both of these women are equally amazing and I’m so close to both of them,” Grant said in an on-camera interview. “But in this moment, I can’t lean on them. I feel alone and I have to make a decision.”
So Grant’s dad Robert stopped by to help him talk it through.
“Somebody’s going to be hurt, but, you know, life goes on,” Robert said to Grant.
Copy The Link To This Blog Post After horseback riding on the beach in the rain for their final date, Grant met up with Litia to try to get clarity on who he should pick in the end.
Grant started by asking Litia if she felt pressure from her family to become a mom. “I don’t feel pressure from them on timeline,” she replied.
Then Grant wondered how Litia would react if he didn’t want to have kids on her timeline.
“I think it would depend on your reasons,” she said. “If your reasons were, there’s still more that you want to accomplish before you have kids, I think you want to be a very present father and so, I think if you’re not ready and there are things that you want to do, I think of course. You know? I want to make you happy.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant took Juliana on their final date of the season, a sailboat ride through the Dominican Republic. That night, they met up in her hotel room to sip champagne and talk about what the future held.
Grant questioned whether Juliana felt ready for the next step in their relationship. “Will you break my heart?” he asked the client service associate.
“What I can at least promise you moving forward is that I will do my best to handle your heart with care because, as I’ve shared too, I know that feeling,” she responded.
That seemed to placate Grant, and then Juliana doubled down. “On my end, heck yeah, I’m ready!” she insisted.
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant Ellis and Juliana on ‘The Bachelor’ season 29. Anne Marie Fox/Disney
After introducing Juliana to his family, Grant told her, “I’ve been waiting to tell you that I do love. And after today I can feel that, you know? And there’s no pressure on you.”
Still, Juliana shared that she felt the same way. “For so long I’ve debated on just like, what it would mean to actually know that I love you,” she said to Grant. “And I think I’m finally realizing after meeting your family, it’s not like one in particular moment that I’m gonna … just gonna hit me. I think I’ve known that I love you too and I want it to be you and I at the end of this. I love you, too.”
Grant told the cameras that Juliana “saying it back, it makes me feel special.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Before introducing Juliana to his loved ones, Grant told the cameras he needed to “see if she’s truly ready for love.” Meanwhile, Juliana worried that she hadn’t said “I love you” to Grant yet and whether she’d be able to get there.
Renee told Juliana she planned to ask her “some hard questions,” including, “Do you love my son?”
“Grant and I have not told each other we love each other,” Juliana confessed to Renee. “I’ve been kind of holding back a little bit in that sense just because what that means.”
Renee questioned how Juliana knows she can get there with Grant. “An engagement means forever to me,” Juliana assured. “Love means forever to me. He is truly somebody that I can see myself being in love with and spending the rest of eternity with.”
Renee brought up to her son that she felt concerned about him and Juliana not saying “I love you” yet.
“It’s no fault to her. You know?” Grant said. “I think that it’s hard to say that you love somebody when there’s somebody else in the picture.”
Still, Renee said, “If she doesn’t tell you she loves you, I am asking you to walk away from that.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant Ellis and Litia on ‘The Bachelor’ season 29. Anne Marie Fox/Disney
While speaking to his dad, Grant expressed that he and Litia had different timelines regarding having kids.
“She wants to have children right away,” Grant told Robert, adding that he saw himself traveling and enjoying life with his partner for the next three to four years.
But Robert assured Grant that it would work out if they loved each other. “When you love someone, you’ll be able to do all those things as long as you’re both happy,” Robert said to Grant.
That made Grant feel better about the situation, and he left the family meeting feeling like “this is something I can get used to” in terms of Litia fitting in with his parents and sister.
When Grant and Litia spoke privately afterwards, the New Jersey native reiterated to Litia that he loved her — and she returned the sentiment.
“I just know with you,” Litia said to Grant. “And yeah, I just love you.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Grant said he could see Litia being his wife before introducing her to his mom Renee, dad Robert and sister Taylor. He also noted that his family gathering in the Dominican Republic to meet his final suitors marked the first time in “almost a decade” that his family came together since his parents divorced.
“You guys look so good together!” Robert said to Grant and Litia when he met them.
Renee said in a confessional interview that she could “sense the synergy” between Litia and Grant.
Litia told Renee that she had no doubts about accepting a proposal from Grant and suggested that she and the Bachelor start their lives “in a neutral place where it’s new for both of us” should they end up together.
“I would be very happy with Litia,” Renee told the cameras. “She would make a great daughter-in-law.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Host Jesse Palmer kicked off the live show in the studio in Los Angeles on March 24 by questioning whether Grant will leave his season “alone and heartbroken.” “There has never been a Bachelor who has been more torn over the two final women at the end,” Jesse said. “And when I mean the end, I mean the very end. This is going to be an emotional and a historic conclusion.”
Copy The Link To This Blog Post Hours ahead of The Bachelor finale kicking off on Monday, March 24, ABC posted a teaser showing Grant struggling to choose between Juliana and Litia on the network’s Instagram account.
“It’s supposed to be the happiest day of my life, and my emotions are just everywhere,” Grant says in the preview. “I don’t know how you look at somebody that you really love and tell them that you can’t be with them. It’s impossible.”
