‘Golden Bachelorette’ Star Joan Vassos Reveals ‘Wonderful Gift’ Her Husband Gave Her Just Before His Death

Heavy/ABC Joan Vassos

Joan Vassos revealed that her late husband gave her an incredible gift just before his passing. In a June 2024 interview,  “The Golden Bachelorette” star spoke out about her husband of 32 years, John Vassos, who passed away of pancreatic cancer at age 59 in 2021.

Vassos, 61, told Entertainment Tonight she firmly believes that her late husband “had a little hand” in her getting cast as the first-ever “Golden Bachelorette.”

“He told me right before he passed away, ‘You need to go out and find somebody else. You were the best wife in the world and I want you to be happy,’” Vassos shared with the outlet. “He gave me this wonderful gift before he died, and he said go and do something, and so here I am.”

Joan Vassos Questioned If She Betrayed Her Husband By Joining ‘The Bachelor’ Franchise

Vassos admitted that it took her a while to get back into the dating pool after mourning her husband’s death. In an interview on “The Bachelor Happy Hour: Golden Hour” podcast, she said, “Year one came and I wasn’t even close to ready. There was no chance I was dating anybody. Year two came around and I felt like I wasn’t getting any younger and it’s been two years, so I felt like I wasn’t getting any prettier or any less wrinkles. I felt like I was wasting good, valuable time and really felt like I needed to start dating.”

She admitted she didn’t even know “how” to start and had no interest in joining a dating app. Instead, she turned on her TV and was struck by an advertisement that appeared onscreen.

“And it was like the universe was talking to me,” she said. “There was an ad for a new show ‘The Golden Bachelor’ and it said to fill out the form. So I picked up my phone and filled out the form and here I am.”

In 2023, Vassos was a contestant on Gerry Turner’s season of “The Golden Bachelor,” but she left after three weeks to tend to a family emergency.

She told ET that when she was first offered the role as ABC’s leading lady, she feared it was a betrayal of her late husband. A friend told her she was “nuts” and reminded her how much her husband would have loved it all.

“He loved reality TV,” Vassos told the outlet of her husband. “He was a dive in with both feet to anything you do [kind of person]. I think he’s up there going, ‘Look, that’s my wife down there. She’s doing this.'”

In January 2024, Vassos posted a tribute to her husband on the third anniversary of his death. She captioned a throwback photo of her and her husband posing on a pier with their four kids, Nicholas, Erica, Luke, and Allison.

In the caption, Vassos wrote that a “hole” was left in her universe when her husband died. “He was the husband that always made me feel safe and cherished,” she shared.

Joan Vassos Revealed What Kind of Man She is Looking For

Vassos is not looking to replicate the kind of love she had with her husband. She admitted to ET that she is in search of a “different” type of love. According to her ABC bio, Vassos hopes to find  “a family man with whom to blend her life.”

In an interview with CNN, she said she is “open” to an engagement. “I do believe this process works,” she said. “I’ve seen it work for so many couples on ‘The Bachelor,’ so I believe in the process. If it ends up in engagement, that’s great. If it ends up in, you and I are going to get to know each other better in the outside world, that’s perfect also.”

Vassos admitted she probably “won’t rush into a marriage right away” regardless. “I think it takes some time to really get to know somebody,” the ABC star said. “Out in the wild, in the real world, you need to spend some time there.”