The Golden Bachelor debuted last year. Gerry Turner, 73, was searching for love among 22 contestants after his high-school sweetheart and wife of 43 years died suddenly in 2017. Although he found love with Theresa Nist, he found it only briefly. The couple divorced after three months, because of distance, and because it was too difficult to reconcile their past lives with an entirely new one.
I wrote at the time about the show’s inevitably sad premise:
In regular seasons, bachelors can get away with confessing their love to multiple young women because, after all, these women are young. They will recover. This season, such an admission is dangerous. Age means higher stakes; Faith, Leslie, and Theresa will survive heartbreak, but it might be the last heartbreak they can stomach. Time, that thing other Bachelor contestants can afford to waste, Gerry’s women keep precious — a realization that made this Bachelor season almost unbearable to watch.
Well now, there’s a Golden Bachelorette, and her name is Joan Vassos, and she’s 61 years old, and her husband of 32 years died tragically from pancreatic cancer. And those of us who are absolute gluttons for reality television (also known as punishment) will likely watch history repeat itself when the first episode of Joan’s season premieres in September. Ready the popcorn (wine).
