Joan Vassos Felt Like She Was “Cheating” On Her Late Husband

Joan Vassos couldn’t shake off feelings of guilt at the beginning of her Golden Bachelorette journey.

Speaking recently to People, Vassos got candid about grieving her husband of 32 years, John Vassos, who died in January 2021. She explained that she felt she was being unfaithful to her late love at the start of filming.

“It was in my face that I was feeling really guilty, honestly, about having feelings for somebody else,” she said. “I almost felt like I was cheating on John, which is crazy because he’s passed away.”

The Golden Bachelorette also recalled that her late husband had wanted her to move on, telling her before his death, “I want you to find somebody. You are the greatest wife in the world. I don’t want you to be alone. I want you to find somebody.”

While she initially felt “uneasy” about building connections on the show, Vassos revealed that The Golden Bachelorette’s team of psychiatrists were on hand to help.

“They said, ‘You don’t have to let go of John. Picture it like this: you have two balloons, one in each hand, and John is in a balloon in this hand, and your potential person that you’re going to fall in love with in this hand. You don’t have to let go of him from this hand to pick this one up and have a life with this one,’” she recalled.

Vassos joined Bachelor Nation in 2023 as a contestant on Gerry Turner’s season of The Golden Bachelor. Though her journey was cut short when she self-eliminated to help her newly postpartum daughter, she made a big impression that ABC looked to her to lead the first-ever season of The Golden Bachelorette. The network announced her role in May 2024, and the show premiered on Sept. 18.

Joan Won’t “Replace” Her Late Husband

This isn’t the first time Vassos has spoken of her late spouse since joining the show. In a Golden Bachelorette promo clip from July, she had an on-camera discussion with her mother, mother-in-law, and her and John’s four children, Nicholas, Erica, Allison, and Luke, and made it clear that she had no intention of replacing their father.

“Thank you so much for all your support,” she told her loved ones in the clip. “I’m not here to replace Dad, I just want our family to be whole again.”