TV & Movies
Joan Vassos Was “Afraid” Of Breaking A Fantasy Suites Tradition
“It was causing me a lot of angst.”
Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos made a major change to the Fantasy Suites dates, but setting boundaries wasn’t easy for the reality star.
As veteran Bachelor Nation members know, the overnight Fantasy Suite dates oftentimes lead to intimate moments between the cast. However, appearing on The View in September, Vassos revealed that her Fantasy Suites would look quite different from other seasons.
“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,’” she recalled, adding that her contestants were “actually very respectful” of her decision. “I’m not judging anybody else, the way they did it,” she clarified. “Just for me, that was the right way to do it.”
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Vassos confessed that vocalizing her boundary during filming caused her “a lot of angst” as she feared it “wasn't going to be popular” with producers and fans.
“It was probably three weeks into the season, and I was up late with my producer and we were taking a walk,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Okay, this is a good time to tell him.’ I said, ‘I need to talk to you about something.’”
Vassos continued, “I told him that I didn’t feel comfortable having that physical relationship with more than one person, so I really want to do Fantasy Suites a different way, and I'm hoping they'll allow that.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the Golden Bachelorette said she assumed producers “weren't going to budge” and might “shut the whole thing down.” However, she was pleasantly surprised. “They had no problem with it,” she added. “They respected that that's how it needed to be for me. They were great about it.”
Vassos also revealed that, despite getting rid of the beds, her Fantasy Suite dates went until “two or three o'clock in the morning” with the remaining contestants.
Fantasy Suites Twist
While the Fantasy Suites lacked any overly intimate moments, drama between the show’s cast was in plentiful supply. During the Oct. 30 episode, Pascal Ibgui eliminated himself from The Golden Bachelorette after admitting that his heart wasn’t in it.
“I know what love is,” he told Vassos during the episode. “I’ve experienced it, you’ve experienced it. And I care about you as a friend. But I’m not in love. And I just can’t be there.”
Speaking to Bustle after his Golden Bachelorette exit, Pascal said he wouldn’t do anything differently today. “I think the progression of our journey together was wonderful,” he said, adding that he found the show’s process to be “too quick” overall.
