Image Credit: Disney
The first season of The Golden Bachelorette can’t come soon enough! First-look photos of season 1 star Joan Vassos have been released, and the 61-year-old reality TV personality is embracing a vital life lesson: “Love never ages.”
In the first poster from the season, Joan holds up a golden rose while looking off camera, as multiple gold petals fall around her. In the accompanying shot, the ABC star looks directly into the camera while holding her golden rose in one hand.
Viewers were first introduced to Joan during Gerry Turner‘s stint on The Golden Bachelor. She had to leave the show because her daughter had just given birth, and Joan wanted to be there for her. ABC eventually announced that she was selected to be the lead on The Golden Bachelorette.
Courtesy of Disney/Ramona Rosales
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Joan admitted that she “so thought that [she] was gonna be that girl who left that nobody remembers.”
“I truly believed that was gonna be the outcome,” she told the outlet in June. “I really was sad about that, honestly, because I loved being here. I think the process worked. I was sad when I had to leave, so having the opportunity to come back and [having] people actually remember me a little bit [is amazing].”
As for how the journey is for her, Joan pointed out that it’s a “quick” one and said, “You can’t leave anything on the table.”
Courtesy of Disney
When it comes to her current relationship with Gerry, 72, Joan noted that the two former co-stars “text all the time,” calling him a “very, very good friend.”
“He kind of created the road map that we have now,” Joan added about Gerry. “There’s no rulebook, and he kind of wrote it a little bit. He exemplified somebody who is very open and vulnerable. He said that’s what you need to be from day one, because you don’t have a lot of time.”
Like Gerry, Joan lost her spouse. Her late husband died at the age of 59 from pancreatic cancer. Joan shares four children with him, and they were married for more than 30 years before his death.
For his part, Gerry found happiness with Theresa Nist on The Golden Bachelor, but their love story didn’t last forever. After they tied the knot in January, they announced their split less than four months later.
The Golden Bachelorette premieres on September 18 on ABC.
