One of the best things about The Golden Bachelor — as well as its soon-to-be spin-off series, The Golden Bachelorette — is that the contestants are much more mature and wise than the 20-something-year-olds looking for love on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.
Naturally, the inaugural Golden Bachelorette, Joan Vassos, is no exception, already showing a great deal of maturity and wisdom during her short-lived stint on The Golden Bachelor by self-eliminating from the beloved competition series after receiving a troubling text from home:
“Things go wrong. Even if everything went right, you need your mom. My family will always be first. Once you become a mom, you’re always a mom, even when your kids are older. Nothing is more important.”
With viewers learning during the “Women Tell All” that her daughter was struggling with a severe case of postpartum depression, the Maryland native’s difficult decision to leave the show and sever her relationship with Gerry Turner once and for all was extremely admirable, showing that she has a good head on her shoulders and the decision-making skills needed to make a great Golden Bachelorette. Naturally, she fit the bill beautifully, landing the role of a lifetime!
We cannot help but assume that this maturity and wisdom will translate into a relationship with one (or multiple) of her Golden Bachelorette suitors, learning a great deal from her first marriage, which tragically ended in her husband passing away. Sharing her pet peeves, guilty pleasures, celebrity crushes and more in a goofy game of 20 questions with Bachelor Nation, she also let her serious side shine, spilling some of the most important things she learned from her 32-year marriage that ended far too soon. Keep scrolling to see for yourself…
Believe it or not, Joan’s first marriage was anything but sunshine and rainbows. Admitting that it was “far from perfect,” she shared some of her biggest takeaways with Bachelor Nation, which primarily have to do with kindness and forgiveness:
“I had a great marriage that was far from perfect, and we learned a lot in 32 years before my husband passed away. But probably the most important thing we both learned was to be kind when you fight and get good at forgiveness, and then move on.”
Joan knows exactly what she is looking for this time around — and no, we’re not talking about a man who looks like Kevin Costner or Rob Lowe — and we cannot help but hope that she finds her forever person as the Golden Bachelorette, settling down once and for all. We seriously cannot wait to watch her love story unfold on our television screens this Fall, and perhaps even implement some of her maturity and wisdom into our own love lives!