The inaugural season of ABC’s hit senior spinoff of the popular Bachelor franchise concluded with a happy ending that didn’t last.
Gerry Turner famously married his Golden Bachelor show pick Theresa Nist in a live televised wedding, but they split up after only three months.
The two reportedly couldn’t agree on where to live.
It can be a challenge for older people from different states with established ties, children and grandchildren to uproot their lives, but Joan says it “could be positive and really fun.”
“I obviously have my life in Maryland and I’m not leaving it,” she tells Parade. “I have children and grandchildren and a mother [Mary, 92] and mother-in-law who rely on me, and I would never leave them and I kind of feel like a [man] should be the same way. I’m hoping that he would have ties to his community and his family and his friends that he wouldn’t want to leave.”
Her workaround: Long-distance relationships.
“At this age, when you’re kind of in the retirement years, or getting close to them, it’s a little bit easier so as long as you have the time and the resources, you make it happen,” she says. “You can fly to wherever they are. And it can even kind of be on the fun side. If I had something really fun happening in Rockville [Maryland], where I live, come and spend a couple weeks with me. And if you have something great going on where you are, then I’ll come to you.”
Joan may be close to retirement age but she’s still a private school administrator and she’ll have to return from her leave of absence at some point.
“I still feel like I’m really entrenched in this. I need to have a maybe month or two away from [the show publicity],” she says. “I got to be in Aladdin [on Broadway], go to Dancing with the Stars, stuff I’ve been dying to do. I’m still having a lot of fun with it, so I’m not going to make a [retirement] decision yet,” she said.
