'The Bachelor' Star Zoe McGrady Reveals She "Cut Ties" With Her Adoptive Parents

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 29 of The Bachelor.

In the blink of an eye, Season 29 of The Bachelor has officially reached hometowns. The season has felt like a blur, with most of the focus on petty drama that didn't really warrant more than a few minutes of airtime.

But now, Grant Ellis is down to his final four women, one of whom is Zoe McGrady. During her hometown date, Zoe decides to introduce Grant to her "chosen family" — a group that doesn't include her parents.

Here's what you need to know about her relationship with them.

At the beginning of her hometown date, Zoe sits down with Grant and lets him know that he won't be meeting her adoptive parents. Instead, she will introduce him to her "chosen family," which includes her sister, as well as her aunt and uncle.

It's immediately apparent that Zoe isn't close with her adoptive parents. She reveals to Grant that she "had to cut ties" with them about a year before filming. Zoe then goes on to explain that there were "many vices" involved and that she gave her parents "a lot, a lot of chances" to change.

From her perspective, it seems her adoptive parents never treated her with the respect she deserved. Zoe's words suggest that her adoptive parents consistently failed to offer the support and care she needed.

As a result, the lack of emotional guidance and love might've been the reason that the model eventually made the difficult choice to sever ties, recognizing that the relationship had become unhealthy and unsustainable.

Zoe also opens up about how Grant's journey of rebuilding his relationship with his father has been particularly inspiring to her. Despite the estrangement, Zoe makes it crystal clear that the door is still "open" for her adoptive parents to reenter her life if they choose, but for now, they remain out of the picture.

During a January 2024 appearance on the Miss Represented podcast, Zoe, a biracial woman, opened up about her experience growing up in a predominantly white town in the South. Zoe revealed that she and her sister were adopted by two white parents, also sharing how their family dynamics often left them as the center of unwanted attention.

"It was just kind of weird. We were always the people [that other] people were staring at. They didn't know what was going on as far as our family dynamics, and just being one of the few people of color down there just made things a bit difficult at times," Zoe said. "And for me, especially, being Black [and] being interested in STEM — science and math — I was just always kind of the black sheep of my hometown."

Zoe went on to reflect on how this sense of isolation shaped her teenage years. She told the host, "I was definitely an outcast. I wasn't the one they were inviting to parties. There were so many times [when] friends ditched me ... I just never had my circle of people, so that was where I was like, 'OK, I'm just kind of this loner.'"

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