The Golden Bachelorette Made A Major Change To Fantasy Suites

Joan Vassos’ Golden Bachelorette journey has only just begun, and she’s already writing her own rules when it comes to dating after loss. The lead made that clear when she recently teased the end of her season.

Specifically, during an appearance on The View, Joan opened up about why Fantasy Suites will look quite different from other seasons throughout the franchise.

“For me, I would never have a physical relationship with more than one person. “[It’s] just not a thing I would do,” Joan said during the Sept. 20 episode. However, she still wanted to use the Fantasy Suites — aka overnight dates with the final suitors — “because there is a lot of value being able to talk to somebody without cameras.”

Joan’s 1 Rule For Fantasy Suites

The 61-year-old school administrator found a happy medium. “I said, ‘I want to do Fantasy Suites, but I don’t want to have a bed in there. And I’m taking that off the table,’” Joan recalled.

Her contestants were “actually very respectful” about the boundary, she said before clarifying that what made sense for her Fantasy Suites doesn’t have to make sense for other leads. “I’m not judging anybody else, the way they did it,” she said. “Just for me, that was the right way to do it.”

This certainly isn’t the first time a lead has made such a decision about Fantasy Suites. During his Bachelor season, Zach Shallcross famously began overnight dates with a “no sex” rule for himself. But he did change his mind, and the reversal had a bit of emotional fallout.

Fortunately, everything worked out for the Season 27 lead and his fiancée, Kaity Biggar. However, Joan’s decision to remove beds altogether seems like a practical way to avoid any confusion during the final few days of her Golden Bachelorette journey.

Expect More Twists Ahead

Foregoing beds in Fantasy Suites is not the only way Joan is bucking tradition. For example, the franchise is generally centered around a proposal — note the engagement ring “O” in the show’s logo — but as Joan recently told Bustle, it’s not one of her expectations.

“At this age, it takes a little time to get to know somebody,” she said. “Sometimes there’s love at first sight, and sometimes you need more time. I was looking for a committed relationship, somebody I was going to leave this journey with to see how it would work in the real world. Like, let’s date.”