The Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos has officially started handing out roses — but is her final rose recipient the next great love of her life?
Us Weekly spoke to the 61-year-old lead ahead of the Wednesday, September 18, premiere of ABC’s senior spinoff. When asked if she can confidently say that she found love on the show — in the supertease, Joan says, “I’ve only been in love with one person, more than one now” — she admitted it’s a “hard question” to answer.
“The journey ended exactly like it should. I feel like I found a lot of love and there’s all different kinds of love,” Joan told Us. “I feel like every one of these men are gonna be in my life forever. We shared really, really intimate things about our lives and we are bonded. So I think I found a lot of love actually this season.”
Joan was married to late husband John for 32 years before his 2021 death at age 59.
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“I taped the whole season and had a little break, but there’s been a lot of hype now, so I am happy it’s finally here. I am dying for this to not just be about me [and] for it to be about the journey and the men too,” Joan told Us. “We’re dating for a million other people [and] to show them that when you’re in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or whatever, that it still could be fun. Dating can be fun, and finding love is worth the journey.”
During Wednesday’s premiere, she gave Keith, a 62-year-old girl dad, the first impression rose.
“I could have given out 10 [first impression roses]. I am not lying. I’m not exaggerating,” she said before gushing about Keith. “I got that feeling of comfort and safety. He’s like this big teddy bear that I just immediately connected with [and] felt really comfortable. It was way more about the feeling that I had with Keith.”
Joan added: “You go into this not knowing if you’re gonna have a connection with anybody. And there were several guys that I felt like when they stepped out of the limo and I had a little conversation with them and [when] they walked away, I thought, ‘OK, this could work, I’m feeling good.’”
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While Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner proposed on the inaugural senior season last year (he and Theresa Nist split in April after three months of marriage), Joan didn’t necessarily have a Neil Lane ring as her end goal.
“I said all along I didn’t need to leave engaged,” she told People, noting she hoped to leave the show “in a committed relationship.”
Joan explained: “I wanted to have somebody I saw a future with and that we wanted to see how it works in the real world outside of the Bachelor bubble. I didn’t want to go through all of this and be at the same place I was when I came to the mansion.”
For more from Joan, watch the video above. The Golden Bachelorette airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
