Golden Bachelor contestant Joan Vassos is the lead for The Golden Bachelorette this season, and her contestants were just announced.
The 61-year-old’s season will air this fall on the network, and until then, she’s prepping for what’s to come. In particular, she has a major stipulation about what she will not give up for love.
Joan said she will not be moving away from her family, no matter what. She’s based in Maryland.
“That was actually the first question that Gerry asked me. We sat down for the first time together and he said, ‘You live in Maryland, I live in Indiana. How do you see something like this working?’ … My answer to him was – and it still is my answer – I think you almost have to live a dual life,” Joan shared with CNN.
She added, “I’ll never leave my family. They are the most important people in the world to me obviously, and I would expect that to be the same for the person that I end up with because family is so important to me, that would have to be a key part of their personality.”
About how they’d make it work, she shared, “You have to be willing to … travel and be with that person and maybe spend a couple of months or a couple of weeks at a time … and then maybe eventually, you figure out a destination that would work for you and your families or have another house where everybody gets together.”
The Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner and his winner, Theresa Nist, did not end up working out. They announced their divorce just three months after getting married on TV.