Joan Vassos

Joan Vassos was a contestant on Gerry Turner’s season of The Golden Bachelor and was later named the season 1 star of the new ABC show spinoff, The Golden Bachelorette, which debuted in September 2024.

Her time on the first season of The Golden Bachelor was cut short when she decided to leave the show to prioritize her family, specifically one of her daughters who had just given birth.

Prior to joining The Bachelor franchise, Vassos was a school administrator from Rockville, Maryland, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Maryland. She was previously married for 32 years until husband John died due to pancreatic cancer in 2021. She has four children from her previous marriage — Allison, Nicholas, Erica and Luke — and two grandchildren.