Even though love didn’t last for Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner, the first-ever Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos is on a search for The One.
On Tuesday evening, ABC announced Vassos, 61, would be the series’ leading lady.
In a promotional clip for The Golden Bachelorette, which will air on Wednesdays this coming fall, Vassos reintroduced herself while wearing a floor-length, shimmering gold gown.
She is a school administrator from Rockland, Md., and was widowed after 32 years of marriage to her late husband. Vassos is a mother of four and a grandmother of two.
Vassos was not the runner-up in last year’s first season of The Golden Bachelor, making her casting a surprise to many fans of the reality franchise. Leslie Fhima was widely expected to become the first Golden Bachelorette after she made it to the Golden Bachelor finale, only to blindsided with a breakup by Turner.
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Though Vassos was a fan favourite on Turner’s season — much to do with her quirky “I Just Hope I Don’t Vomit on Your Shoes” poem during episode 3’s talent show — she exited the show early. In that same episode, Vassos received a message from her daughter, who was struggling with postpartum issues after giving birth, and decided to return home to care for her family.
Vassos’ insistence that she leave the production was one of the more emotional moments of The Golden Bachelor season and left many of the women in the mansion — and viewers at home — with tears in their eyes.
Prior to her departure, Vassos and Turner bonded over being widowed and the struggle to begin dating again.
On Tuesday, after it was announced that Vassos would be the first-ever Golden Bachelorette, Turner congratulated his former flame on Instagram.
“You will be phenomenal as the new representative of a generation,” Turner wrote to Vassos. “From one Golden to another…. relax, breathe and enjoy.”
In April, Turner and his wife Theresa Nist, winner of The Golden Bachelor, announced their divorce three months after their televised wedding. Turner proposed to Nist on the Season 1 finale of The Golden Bachelor, which aired on Nov. 30.
ABC has yet to announce a premiere date for The Golden Bachelorette. The episodes will be lengthier than in the past, spanning 90 minutes during a Wednesday time slot.
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