The Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos will have 24 senior men to choose from on the first season of the franchise show featuring an older female star. The 61-year-old blonde beauty made waves on Gerry Turner ’s ratings smash The Golden Bachelor last fall by leaving early due to her daughter’s postpartum crisis. Joan’s daughter needed her after having a baby in a difficult C-section birth, so she regretfully left Gerry’s show .
"My family will always be first," she told the cameras. "Once you become a mom, you're always a mom, even when your kids are older. Nothing is more important.
" But now, the former private school administrator from Rockville, Md., is the star of her own spinoff featuring many male contestants who have aged like fine wine. Widower Gerry, now 73, touched the hearts of Bachelor Nation fans in his search for romance with an older star and competitors.
Although he seemingly found love with his final pick Theresa Nist , 72, and they quickly got married on the lavish The Golden Wedding special, the couple decided to divorce after three months . ABC Despite Gerry’s fractured fairytale, viewers hoped one of his castoff ladies would get her own shot at love and ABC obliged by naming Joan the first The Golden Bachelorette on May 14. Like Gerry, Joan has a heart-wrenching story of losing her longtime spouse.
Her husband John Vassos died of pancreatic cancer in 2021 after 32 years of marriage. ABC Joan has four grown children: Allison , Nicholas , Erica and L.