Charity & Dotun Teased Their Bachelorette Engagement Weeks Ago & We Missed It

Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko got engaged during The Bachelorette Season 20 finale — and while for many viewers it was an outcome written in the stars (or spoilers), Charity still struggled at the end choosing between Dotun and runner-up Joey Graziadei. She even asked her mom for help, although her mother wouldn’t budge.

The show further complicated matters when it revealed that Charity’s family was generous with their praise for Joey but seemingly quieter about their feelings for Dotun. (After the finale, Charity wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the edit of her family was “completely inaccurate.”) And today, the couple tells Bustle that what didn’t make the cut paints a more positive picture.

“What was not fully shown — or what you guys didn’t see — was that my family did, at the end of the day, fall in love with Dotun, too,” Charity says. “Both my parents gave him their blessing, and my sister, after their conversation, was truly floored. She even said to me, ‘Dotun is truly in alignment with your purpose for life.’”

Those unaired moments, Charity adds, “would be helpful for people [to see, and] not play the comparison game.”

Still, the couple isn’t dwelling too much on their finale. Rather, they’re looking ahead — first to Charity’s turn on Dancing with the Stars, and then to a wedding “sooner rather than later.”

In the meantime, the couple opens up about moments viewers missed and their sneaky way of “trolling” fans before the finale aired.

Congratulations to you both! You’ve talked about upcoming milestones like moving in together and your wedding — but are there little things you’ve been looking forward to these past few months since filming?

Charity: God, yes, so many. I just want to go to the grocery store — Trader Joe’s, Erewhon, just walk in, pushing a buggy. We have some fun trips and things planned ahead. We both love music, so we’re going to go to some concerts. But other than that, we’re just basking and celebrating all things.

Looking back on your journey, are there any moments — even if they didn’t make it to air — that make it obvious you’d end up together?

Dotun: We were just so shocked at how our love jumped off the screen. We were so in the moment during the process, and so it was hard to really take a step back. But you got that glimpse at hometowns with my family. And as soon as we walked through, it wasn’t shown, but [my family was] like, “I’ve never seen you more yourself.” They came into it skeptical, one eyebrow up, but they saw us together and were like, “This is different.” That was the first glimpse of external validation. It’s been crazy to watch it back. And it’s a shock that neither of us quit it at Week 3 or 4, just run off. But that made the journey so much better, and we’ve never been more happy or confident than where we are now.

With Dancing with the Stars coming up, is there a song you would love to dance together to? Or one you just consider “your” song?

Charity: I love Beyoncé so I would love to dance to anything from Renaissance. But I love everything. The one I want to mention — and I absolutely cannot choreograph a dance to — is “Wipe Me Down.” [Laughs.] So we’ll save that for fun, intimate moments.

People love looking for social media clues while the season is still airing. Were you ever aware of fan feedback about hints and slip-ups?

Charity: Some of that was brought to my attention, but a lot of that was truly just me living life. I will be honest — I do like to troll a little bit, and we definitely have fun.

Were there any specific examples of trolling you did?

Charity: Maybe some Q&As [where] we played around with each other... I guess we can give one away. I asked him to fill in the blank of “Wipe Me Down.”

Dotun: And obviously, that’s her song.

Charity: Which everyone knows.

Dotun: So I answered that one on purpose and gave a little nod to her like, “Hey, we understand each other.”

That’s so sweet! Charity, you also wore the bracelet from Dotun’s mom on social media.

Charity: Yeah, that was not something that I intentionally did. That was a mess-up on my end. I was like, Oh, well, hopefully no one picks up on it. But I didn’t even know that would be aired in the hometown episode. So then, I’m like, Great.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.