‘Bachelor’ Duke grad Zoe’s hometown date with Grant: Here’s what happened
We’re finally in the home stretch of the latest season of “The Bachelor” with hometown dates officially underway.
It all started with 25 women, but now we’re down to four, including Duke University graduate Zoe McGrady.
With only a few weeks left until the final rose, she and Grant Ellis are taking their journey to love to the next level and meeting her loved ones.
Spoiler alert: Though the tech engineer and model went to school in the Triangle, she brought Grant and “Bachelor” fans back to the current place she calls home, the Big Apple. If you missed Monday night’s episode, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Here’s a recap of Zoe’s hometown date, with results of who got eliminated.
‘Welcome to New York’
After Grant’s time with Juliana in Boston, he ventured to New York City for Zoe’s hometown date. If you’ve been keeping up all season long, you already know that this is Zoe’s first date with Grant — after not getting a single one-on-one up until this point — so to say this date is a big deal would be an understatement.
“I’m a little nervous, but I’m happy,” Grant said before their date. “I think that Zoe is wonderful and she has a lot of traits that I’m looking for. She’s beautiful. She’s intelligent and she’s understanding. I feel like she’s really starting to open up and I really want to get to the next level so there’s a lot riding on today.”
To get a glimpse into Zoe’s life as a model, she and Grant took part in an engagement photo shoot, an activity that Grant said had Zoe confidently and fully in her element.
“I’m having so much fun,” Zoe said. “You know, we look good together. Definitely maybe foreshadowing the future and really get in his brain that I could be a bride one day.”
Even after the shoot, the two really connected with high spirits before meeting what Zoe called her “chosen family” and friends, including her sister, aunt and uncle — after she shared she cut ties with her adoptive parents a year ago.
Meeting the friends and family
“I am very tough but today I definitely need my family...This is not just meeting a man,” Zoe shared behind the scenes. “It’s meeting a guy that might propose in a couple weeks. So I just hope that they’re asking the right questions but also trying to understand our dynamic and if he sees a future with me.”
From their initial interactions, a lot of Zoe’s friends and family said they could tell how happy she seemed with Grant.
After opening up with her sister about how she didn’t get a “romantic, extravagant” one-on-one like the other women still on the show (Litia, Juliana and Dina), her sister asked Grant about it privately.
“I felt like it was either me or it was her that was holding back,” Grant told her sister, Faith.
“Our last two conversations, she was like, ‘OK, this is why I’m hard to read and this is why, and this is what I’ve been through.’ From that moment, I was like, ‘Alright that’s all I need to hear,’” he said.
Saying that was all he needed, Grant added: “Yeah, the other women have had one-on-one dates, but we are, we’re locked in and our connection just started later. It wasn’t too late. It was right on time and now we’re here.”
While they haven’t said “I love you” to each other yet, he did also tell Zoe’s sister that he could see his feelings continue to grow.
“Zoe and I needed today. There’s no question Zoe and I connect on a lot of levels. We really broke through some barriers,” Grant said after their date. “Out of all the women, she’s the one that I feel most vulnerable with. This woman is special and somebody that I see a future with.”
Similarly, Zoe told Grant she felt confident about where their relationship was headed.
“I am feeling much more optimistic and positive,” she told producers. “We’ve moved so much farther along in the relationship and I think part of it was seeing the people who love me.
“I definitely can see myself falling in love with him. I want to be in love, I want to be loved and I want to love my partner fully. We have moved much further along in such a short amount of time that I feel really hopeful. I just hope that it’s not too late.”
Who got eliminated and did not receive a rose?
Of the four remaining women, Zoe got the final rose of the rose ceremony, after Litia and Juliana. Dina did not receive a rose.
What happened on previous episodes of ‘The Bachelor’?
How to watch ‘The Bachelor’
You can tune in and watch “The Bachelor” every Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC and the next day on Hulu.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 10:08 PM with the headline "‘Bachelor’ Duke grad Zoe’s hometown date with Grant: Here’s what happened."
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