The inaugural season of the Golden Bachelorette premieres on Wednesday, September 18 at 8 PM, and 24 senior suitors will attempt to win the heart of Rockville resident Joan Vassos. Last year, nearly two dozen women ages 60 and over vied for the affections of 71-year-old Gerry Turner during the first season of the Golden Bachelor. Now 61-year-old Vassos will be the one handing out the roses. Here’s what to know about the first-ever Golden Bachelorette.
She self-eliminated on the Golden Bachelor.
Bachelor Nation will recognize Joan Vassos as a contestant on the first season of the Golden Bachelor. While she enjoyed a one-on-one date with Turner, the Marylander made the decision to leave the series in its third week. Her daughter had given birth about a week before Vassos left for filming, and she needed support from her mom while dealing with postpartum depression. After leaving the show, Vassos wrote on Instagram that she “traded the mansion for motherhood and headed back to Maryland to be with my family.”
Though she missed “hometowns” (the phase of the show when contestants bring the bachelor/bachelorette home to meet their families), Vassos told MoCo360 she would have taken Turner to DC to see the National Mall in true tourist style.
She’s a mom and grandma.
Vassos has four children with her husband John, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2021, according to his obituary. The couple was married for 32 years. Their kids attended local schools such as Landon and Holy Child. What do her children think of the show? “My daughter Erica and my son Luke are a little … cringey,” Vassos told CNN. “Like, ‘Don’t kiss a guy on TV. This is gonna be really embarrassing. My friends are watching.’ But overall, all of them want me to find love.” Vassos also has three grandchildren.
Her Maryland roots run deep.
After growing up in Olney, Vassos attended the University of Maryland, graduating with a computer science degree in 1985. She now works in alumni relations at Bethesda’s Landon School and has already returned to work since filming the show. The Golden Bachelorette also had her own interior design business.
Ocean City appears to be Vassos’s beach town of choice. She met her late husband at a bar in Ocean City during college (Washingtonian wants to know: Was it Seacrets?), and according to the Washington Post, the couple bought an Ocean City home in 2009.
She’s got hometown pride.
You can find Vassos out and about in Montgomery County. She told MoCo360 that she’s known by name at Rockville’s Stanford Grill, and there’s even a sandwich called “the Vassos” at Brooklyn’s Deli. Plus, Vassos roots for local sports teams: She attends Nationals and Capitals games, and her family used to have Commanders tickets—a team she describes as “not always good,” but “fun.”
She intends to stay in Maryland—no matter who she meets.
Have no fear: It doesn’t look like we will be losing our local reality TV star to Hollywood. Vassos told People she “would never want to leave [her] family” in Maryland, so it sounds like her new beau better know a thing or two about crabs. Vassos’ reluctance to relocate might give one contestant an advantage: 63-year-old Pablo from Cambridge, Maryland. So far, all we know that he is a retired UN Agency director and “has a tough time controlling himself around ice cream.”
