Mom & Grandmother Joan Vassos Is Revealed As The Very First Golden Bachelorette

We had our theories about who would become the very first Golden Bachelorette and, turns out, one of them was right! ABC revealed that Joan Vassos has been chosen as the leading lady looking for love in The Bachelor spin-off series. Bachelor Nation first met the 61-year-old private school administrator on Gerry Turner’s season of The Golden Bachelor and eliminated herself due to a family emergency. “I have to go back and be a mom,” Vassos said when she left the show. We know she’s a devoted mom, but she’s also a proud grandmother. Here’s what you need to know about Vassos’ family before The Golden Bachelorette premieres this fall.

How many kids does Joan Vassos have?

Vassos is a mom of four children she shared with her husband of 32 years, John, who died in 2021 of pancreatic cancer. Based in Maryland, Vassos’ family includes two sons, Nicolas and Luke, and two daughters, Erica and Allison.

During her time on The Golden Bachelor, Vassos often talked about how important her family is to her and prioritized her responsibilities as a mom over finding love with Turner. Vassos previously shared that her daughter had only recently given birth and was suffering from postpartum depression while she was filming the show, and decided to leave to support her daughter. “My daughter just had a baby and it wasn’t a normal, you know, everyday delivery, at all. Things go wrong. And even if everything went right, you need your mom,” she said on The Golden Bachelor. “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.”

We haven’t heard much more about her children, but we’ll likely get to know them better on The Golden Bachelorette considering how involved the families are in the series.

She’s also a grandmother.

Vassos has three grandchildren, two grandsons and one granddaughter, and she often gushes about them on her Instagram.

Her family will always come first.

In an interview with CNN following the casting announcement, Vassos said she will never permanently move away from her family, but is willing to “live a dual life” with the right person.

“I’ll never leave my family,” she told CNN. “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. 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.”

Her kids are excited for her to be on The Golden Bachelorette, but are also a little nervous.

Specifically when it comes to seeing their mom have a steamy TV kiss. (Has anyone told them about the overnight dates?) In the same interview with CNN, Vassos said her kids are split on how pumped they are for their mom to be on The Golden Bachelorette.

“My first and third children are very into this. They think it’s really fun and like, what a cool experience for mom,” she said. “My daughter Erica and my son Luke are a little, like a little cringey. Like, ‘Don’t kiss a guy on TV. This is gonna be really embarrassing. My friends are watching.’ But overall, all of them want me to find love.”