The Golden Bachelorette has found its first golden lady! ABC’s spin-off of The Bachelorette, which features contestants and cast above 60 years of age, has announced that 61-year-old Joan Vassos will be the inaugural Golden Bachelorette.
ABC created the show after the success of The Golden Bachelor, which featured 72-year-old Gerry Turner finding the love of his life. Interestingly, Vassos was a contestant on the aforementioned show but left midway due to personal reasons. Want to know more about the first Golden Bachelorette? Here are all the deets.
Joan Vassos is a School Administrator and a TV Personality
Joan Vassos is a school administrator who, according to her LinkedIn profile, currently works in the alumni relations department at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. She is also into interior design and has pursued it with Metropolitan Interiors in Rockville, Maryland. Vassos graduated from the University of Maryland in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
The school administrator turned into a television personality by appearing on the first season of The Golden Bachelor in September 2023. However, her journey was cut short when she had to leave the show in week three to focus on her family. “My journey to find love took a detour this week as I traded the mansion for motherhood and headed home to be with my family,” she wrote on Instagram in October 2023.
“Family comes first, period. Once a mother, always a mother, I’ll always choose my kids first,” she added, adding, “As for me and my journey to love… guess we will have to see where it takes me next. Until then, stay golden.” Vassos is still friends with her co-contestants from the show and frequently posts pictures with them on social media.
Joan Vassos is a Widow
Vassos was previously married to a man named John for 32 years, but sadly, her husband passed away from pancreatic cancer in January 2021. It took two years for Vassos to move on and enter the dating scene once again after her husband’s demise. And just when she thought she did not know how to find someone special all over again, the opportunity of The Golden Bachelor knocked at her door.
Vassos is a mother to four children whom she welcomed with John: Allison, Nicholas, Erica, and Luke. She also has two grandchildren. In January 2024, Vassos remembered John on his third death anniversary by sharing a throwback picture of their family on Instagram and wrote, “He was the parent that was always the fun one because that’s all he knew how to do…lucky kids because the fun in his book was generally epic.”
On May 14th, Vassos was announced as the star of The Golden Bachelorette, after which she updated her Instagram bio with the message, “The first Golden Bachelorette,” followed by a rose and a sparkle emoji and tagged the official account of the show and Bachelor Nation.
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