The Golden Bachelor is now three episodes in, and one contestant – fan favorite Joan Vassos – made the surprising decision to self-eliminate the day after earning herself a romantic one-on-one dinner date with lead Gerry Turner.
The candlelit dinner came after Vassos was picked by Turner as the winner of the talent show thanks to her poem titled “I Hope I Don’t Vomit on Your Shoes.” During their date, she revealed that her daughter just had a baby before she left for the show. The two bonded over the dinner, and Turner admitted to Vassos, “I’m as excited to be spending time with you as I’ve ever been with anyone.” The date ended with a kiss as Turner gave Vassos a rose, but their budding romance came to a screeching halt the next day when shee decided to leave the show.
The private school administrator received a text from home about her daughter, who’s 15 days postpartum and needs her mother. ”It wasn’t a normal, everyday delivery at all,” Vassos explained on the show. “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.”
Vassos and Turner shared a tearful goodbye as she told the Golden Bachelor that their connection “healed [her] heart.” In a confessional, she said, “He’s helped with the journey, because as you get older you become more invisible. People don’t see you anymore. You’re not as significant as when you’re young.” As for Turner, he was understandably devastated but agreed with her decision to put family first.
The Indiana native told Vassos that he was disappointed but that they both shared a similar moral compass. “Sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest,” he added.
After the episode aired, Vassos took to her Instagram Stories to shed more light on her emotional early exit. “A huge thank you to everyone expressing their concern for my family,” she wrote. “It’s a privilege to be a mom to four amazing kids and a grandmother (they call me Jojo) to two beautiful grandchildren. But once a mom, always a mom and sometimes the timing doesn’t work out with finding love. Everyone at home is doing great and I hope one day I will get the chance at love again.”
Fans are certainly hoping Vassos gets a shot at love again as many took to social media to share their hopes that she would be named the first Golden Bachelorette. Someone wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Joan for Golden Bachelorette !!!!!!” Someone else tweeted, “Joan for golden bachelorette please.”
