Joan Vassos steps into the spotlight for the season premiere of “The Golden Bachelorette” with renewed confidence and the support of people asking her to find love again.
The series, a sequel to ABC’s hit show “The Golden Bachelor,” focuses on people in their golden years looking for their next love.
Joan, who competed for Gerry Turner’s heart on “The Golden Bachelor,” returns to the reality TV franchise as the first Golden Bachelorette.
The widow and mother of four once won Bachelor Nation – with Gerry – on “The Golden Bachelor.” But after having her first and only date in the third week, she left the show to be with her daughter, who had experience. postpartum depression go back home.
Back on Women Tell All, Joan said she “felt bad” about cutting her relationship with Gerry short. He also said that he was the one who helped him not to feel invisible at his age.
“Gerry helped me to be seen because he was looking at me, and he cared about what I had to say, and he wanted to know me,” he said.
And of course, Gerry would be her sidekick on “The Golden Bachelorette.”
Joan got relationship advice from Gerry before filming “The Golden Bachelorette”
Joan and Gerry in “The Golden Bachelor.” John Fleenor/Disney
When it came time to prepare for her season on “The Golden Bachelorette,” Joan said she talked to about four people, including Gerry.
“That’s probably the best advice I got from Gerry,” Joan told Business Insider before Wednesday night’s series premiere. “He did it recently and had a similar journey to mine.”
He recalled: “He said, don’t invest in someone too early. “There are a lot of people out there, and everyone deserves an equal opportunity. You never know what will happen to your first impression of someone.”
Gerry also advised Joan to “leave this story to everyone, to love each other as if you were the only person there.”
Because of the fast-paced nature of the show, Gerry also told Joan, “don’t waste time.”
“It’s a very fast-paced journey and you make sure that every conversation counts and you learn something about the person, because you’ll need all that knowledge to make decisions at the end,” Joan said. he told her.
Joan turned to a psychiatrist to deal with feelings of guilt as she tried to date again.
Joan in the first series of “The Golden Bachelorette.” Gilles Mingasson/Disney
Although Joan felt ready to find love again after the death of her husband, John, in 2021, she did not realize that she was grieving his death until she appeared in ” The Golden Bachelorette.”
Joan said: “Emotionally, I feel like I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know, that I didn’t deal with when my husband died.
Joan says she dated shortly after John’s death, but didn’t have a significant relationship until she met Gerry on “The Golden Bachelor.” To his surprise, he ended up meeting many contestants on “The Golden Bachelorette.”
Joan said: “While I was on this journey and having other relationships and starting to picture life with someone else, I suddenly felt guilty and felt like I didn’t belong. can’t forget John,” said Joan, adding that ‘I will always be part of him.
He said he explained this to the contestants on the first night and turned to “The Bachelor” psychiatrist for advice on how to deal with his guilt.
“I was given a great analogy. They said, ‘You have two balloons in your hands: this is John in this balloon, and this is another person in this balloon, and you don’t have to let John go, too,’” he said. have someone else’s place.”
Joan described her time as emotional, both for her and her husband.
“There wasn’t one man who left this year who said he didn’t learn something about himself and came out a different person,” he said.
New episodes of “The Golden Bachelorette” premiere Wednesday on ABC and air the next day on Hulu.