HeavyABC Joan Vassos.
Joan Vassos is ready to find love as the first star of “The Golden Bachelorette,” but she has a few requirements for her suitors.
The 61-year-old widowed mother of four was named ABC’s latest leading lady eight months after appearing on Gerry Turner’s season of “The Golden Bachelor.” And it already sounds like she won’t let Turner’s mistake happen to her.
In a May 2024 interview published just after her casting announcement, Vassos said she won’t move for any man—and she expects the same from her suitors.
Joan Vassos Says She Will Never Move Away From Her Family
Vassos opened up about her new journey to find love in an interview with CNN. The school administrator stated that she would never move away from her family no matter who she meets.
“I’ll never leave my family,” she told the outlet. “They are the most important people in the world to me obviously. And I would expect that to be the same for the person that I end up with because family is so important to me, that would have to be a key part of their personality.”
Vassos fully expects a long-distance situation, or a lot of traveling, when she meets her next man. “You have to be willing to … travel and be with that person and maybe spend a couple of months or a couple of weeks at a time,” she said. “And then maybe eventually, you figure out a destination that would work for you and your families or have another house where everybody gets together.”
Vassos shared that the living situation was the first thing she talked about with Turner during his season. Turner lives in Indiana and Vasso lives in Maryland. “My answer to him was – and it still is my answer – I think you almost have to live a dual life,” she said.
Fans know that the long-distance situation did in Turner and his final pick, Theresa Nist. In April, the couple announced they were divorcing just three months after tying the knot in a lavish televised wedding.
When breaking the news on “Good Morning America,” the short-lived couple blamed distance as a partial reason for the split. (Nist lives and works in New Jersey). The newlyweds never lived together and were still based in separate states three months after getting married, according to TMZ.
Joan Vassos Left Gerry Turner’s Season For Her Family
Vassos lives in Rockland, Maryland, and is the mother of four grown children: Nicholas, Erica, Luke, and Allison, per Distractify. She’s also a doting grandmother to two young grandchildren.
Vassos put her family first when she was a contestant on Turner’s season. She left “The Golden Bachelor” in the third week to tend to her daughter who was having a medical emergency back home. As she exited Turner’s season, Vassos told him, “I don’t want to leave our journey. But I’ve got to be a parent.”
“She needed me. She needed her mom,” Vassos said pf her daughter in a “Bachelor” supercut, per Decider. “And I didn’t think twice. I knew I had to be there, I heard it in her voice. I could not get on that plane fast enough.”