Madison Prewett Enlisted ‘Accountability’ Buddies to Hold Her to Purity Pledge Before Marrying Grant Troutt (Exclusive)

Madison Prewett Troutt is opening up about a big decision she made with her now-husband, Grant Troutt, before getting married.

In her new book, The Love Everybody Wants: What You’re Looking For Is Already Yours, the former Bachelor contestant wrote about the couple’s decision to draft and sign a purity pledge to keep them from engaging in sex before marriage. To help hold them accountable, the twosome gave a copy of their pledge to their mentors.

Madison, 27, tells PEOPLE that “having community and having accountability around us was so important.”

“I think, like anything in life, you can have a strong value system for something, but there’s going to be moments where pressures or temptations or opinions or whatever it may be, come along the way that can try and take from that or compromise those values,” she explains. “I think for us, we had to continue to remind ourself of the why — why are we choosing to save ourselves for marriage?”

“We’re not doing it to puff ourself up. We’re not doing it because it’s our religious duty. We’re not doing it because other people told us to do it. We’re doing it from a heartfelt place of we really do want to honor God and then save this for a forever covenant with each other one day,” she adds.

“That really was our why and our perspective. Then, after developing our why behind that value system was really just putting people around it to just hold us accountable in that.”

Through this experience, Madison has been able to take away some important lessons about discipline.

“I think I’ve learned that even in the smallest things in life, say I want to go on a diet and eat healthy, I’ve just learned, if I don’t decide before those moments of pressures and temptations, I’m going to find myself every time going to Chick-fil-A and getting a milkshake and some fries,” she explains.

“I’ve got to decide outside of that moment, Madi, we are not going to go to Chick-fil-A. We’re not going to eat these foods, and making those decisions outside of the moment knowing the why. Okay, I’m not doing that because I want to be the healthiest and best version of myself.”

Madison accepted Grant’s proposal in July 2022 after eight months of dating. They tied the knot that October in Dallas, Texas.

Having gotten through the purity pledge period, the former reality star is grateful to those who stepped in to mentor them along the way. She credits these people for being able to “speak life over you and just remind you of your purpose and your why, and also just hold you accountable and call you out.”

“You got to have friends that aren’t afraid to call you out. I learned that the hard way,” she says. “I can’t just have people around me that are like, ‘Yes, girl. Yes, girl.’ I got to have people around me that are like, ‘No, that’s not it. That’s not cute. That’s not good. You’re better than that.’ And so really having people in my life, too, that just are not afraid to call me out.”

This topic is among the many vulnerable areas Madison touches on in her new book, out Tuesday. In doing so, she aims to help her readers understand the foundations of love and establish a sense of self-worth, which is something she’s worked to cultivate for herself as well.

“We all want love. We all want to love and to be loved,” she says. “We’re desperate for it because we were made out of love and we were made for love. It’s a hole in our heart that we’re longing to be filled.”

Madison adds, “My prayer is that when people read this book, they see that this love that they’re longing for is already available to them.”

The Love Everybody Wants: What You’re Looking For is Already Yours is available to purchase Tuesday wherever books are sold.

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