Note: The following story contains spoilers from “The Golden Bachelorette” Episode 9.
With wedding bells on the horizon for “Golden Bachelorette” Joan Vassos and her fiancé Chock Chapple, the pair said they haven’t been approached about a “Golden Wedding” — and Vassos is “glad” about that.
“I think it’s a little early,” Vassos told TheWrap in a Thursday interview. “I think everybody wants to make sure that we’re good and I confidently say that we are, but I still want to not be planning a wedding right now. I want it to just be us … enjoying life.”
While Vassos added that the couple has been asked about their impending wedding in “regular conversation” with ABC staffers, with whom they’ve developed a relationship over the course of filming and rollout, Vassos said the network has not put out a “formal ask” to herself and Chapple to be at the center of a televised wedding ceremony like the “Golden Wedding” between former “Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist. Turner and Nist tied the knot live on ABC in early January 2024, and announced in April they would be getting a divorce.
As Vassos and Chapple enjoy their engagement, New York City will be their new home base as they begin integrating their families and enjoying dating in the open.
Below, the happy couple unpack their final moments on “The Golden Bachelorette” and reveal their plans for their next chapter.
TheWrap: Congratulations! What’s it been like to share your engagement with the world after keeping it under wraps?
Joan Vassos: It feels great. It’s been hard to keep the secret. You want to tell your friends and family, because they’re rooting for you, and they’ve known about this for so long, they followed you through your whole journey, they missed you for two months, and they come back and you have to be silent. It’s really, really hard, but I have to say that there’s a little bit of value in having it just be the two of you knowing about it — I never thought this would be true. You get to do these happy couple houses, and we got five of them, so we spent some really good quality time without any noise from the outside and we got to really know each other and make sure what we thought was a leap of faith was really something that was going to work.
Joan, you sent home Guy [Gansert] after realizing you had definitely found your person with Chock. When exactly did it strike you that Chock was the one?
Vassos: We had a connection really, really early on in the season and it continued to grow throughout the whole season. But I made a commitment to these other guys that I would give them everybody a chance to explore our relationship … Honestly, I took it all the way to our last interaction, which was fantasy suites, and we got to have our our important conversations behind closed doors. All along, I kept coming back in my heart to Chock and my feelings for him had grown so much stronger, and that I was in love with him and I didn’t want poor Guy to become more invested. So I ended it in a little bit of a different way … I wanted to save his feelings as much as I could, and not invest in meeting my family and have my family meet him and think that maybe he was one of the people. I felt like when I knew it was for sure Chock that I needed to tell Guy and let him know.
Chock, during your proposal, did you know Guy had already been sent home?
Chock Chapple: I don’t think so. I was so concentrated on what I was supposed to do and going to do that I don’t think so — I was going in thinking that there’s probably going to be two of us. Guy’s a gentleman — He’s a friend of mine. We talk every week. He handled it with class, and Joan handled it with dignity for him. It had to go to one person and fortunately, it was me. But I’ve got a lot of respect for Guy.
Chock, when did you realize she had chosen you?
Chapple: The day before, Joan came over to the bungalow that I was staying in, it was probably one of the most romantic places in the world. She came over for a talk, and then we went outside on the balcony and we had a kiss. I spent three weeks trying to get this woman to tell me she loved me — I tried everything in the world, and she just wouldn’t do it, but I was getting the signs. We had a kiss, and that kiss — it’s just the power of a kiss, a simple kiss — I knew with that that everything was good.
Fans noted some awkwardness during your first meeting with Joan’s family, particularly after some PDA. How did that feel in the moment, and how is everyone getting along now?
Chapple: Well, I’m a touchy guy. I told Joan, “my love language is touch.” And there’s been some comments about the Disneyland because it was the first date she had and I’ve got my hand on her leg … I can’t even consciously tell you that I did it. I just saw the picture. It just felt so natural … Kids don’t like to see parents kiss [or] touch at all — They don’t … but hey, we’re adults. We’re going to do what feels good and what we what each other likes.
Vassos: He kind of broke the ice right away, and he said, “I’m just going to do this right now, I’m going to kiss your mom, and then it’s out in the open, it’s done.” It was kind of funny, maybe a little uncomfortable, but it got it out of the way.
What are you most excited for in this next chapter in New York City?
Chapple: Just spending time together, integrating the families, Joan coming to Kansas a little bit, me going to Maryland, spending time in New York. We’ve got four big trips we’re going to do in 2025, probably start planning a wedding at some point. We’ve got a lot going on and we both like adventure. We talked about some vacations — taking one that might be just a beach relaxation, then the next one going and climbing Kilimanjaro or something like that, so we’re going to be busy.
Vassos: I need to get some new shoes or something … we’re looking forward to some adventure — New York City is kind of an adventure for us. It’s something that both of us always wanted to do when we were younger. I was planning to move there with a good friend of mine right after college, and I met John, and I decided that I really wanted to explore a relationship. I ended up married with four kids, so I’m sort of glad I didn’t go to New York City, but still was kind of lurking in the back of my own mind that I wanted to do it, and I was so happy to hear that he had the same dream, because it’s kind of a little bit of a weird dream, and that at the age of 61 you can still, like have dreams, even from when long ago, and still make them happen.
Who would you nominate to be the next Golden Bachelor?
Vassos: That’s a particularly hard question for this group. I think that the nation really got to know the men really, really well — a lot more than in “The Golden Bachelor” — “The Golden Bachelor” episodes were only an hour, ours were an hour and a half or two hours. Everybody talks about Mark and Charles. [Charles] is such a unique individual human being — we’re not used to that innocence in an adult and it is kind of what we needed right now [with] all this turmoil in the world — Charles is what we needed.
I know people talked about Mark because people fell in love with them in Joey’s season when Kelsey brought him home. There’s all these other guys that we got to hear — Greg is hilarious and smart and has all these quirky, funny comments. Dan is such a kind human being, and so gentle and emotional. Jack is hilarious. I think everybody’s seen his personality a lot. He wasn’t really one of those people that stood in the background. He’s doing cannonballs in the pool and giving us a tour of the mansion. Jordan …. he’s very funny. He has this sarcastic kind of wit about him. There are just so many guys it would be hard to pick one, I would not want that job for anything. I don’t think I don’t think you can go wrong.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
All episodes of “The Golden Bachelorette” are available to stream on Hulu.
