'The Golden Bachelorette' Star Jonathan Rone Is "Following His Heart" These Days

In a surprising turn of events, The Golden Bachelorette star Joan Vassos made the difficult decision to send fan-favorite Jonathan Rone home during the fifth week of the season.

While many viewers were utterly heartbroken, others immediately began campaigning for Jonathan to become the next Golden Bachelor.

However, it looks like that won't be happening anytime soon. During the "Men Tell All" special, Jonathan dropped a major update about his love life that has fans buzzing. Here's everything you need to know about what he's up to now — including who he's dating!

During the highly-anticipated "Men Tell All" special, Jonathan Rone was the first to take the hot seat, where he shared an update on his love life while chatting with his ex-girlfriend, Joan Vassos, and the rest of the cast.

Jonathan began by thanking Joan for making his time on the show so memorable and made it clear there were no hard feelings after their breakup. But then, he dropped a major bombshell — he's dating someone new!

"I just want to give an update on this journey, that I met someone and the most important thing about that is that I'm happy," he revealed.

Later, speaking to Extra at the "Men Tell All" taping, Jonathan expressed how well his new relationship was going, saying he's happy and "following my heart." He went on to add, "I'm just trying to live my life with an authentic heart, being genuine, and so I just let the rest take care of itself."

As expected, fans are thrilled for him — but many are dying to know more about his new love interest. For now, though, Jonathan is keeping things under wraps — and honestly, who can blame him?! After putting himself out there for millions of viewers to see, he deserves a little privacy as he enjoys this new chapter of his life.

In October 2024, Jonathan joined the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast with Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt, where he opened up about his dating life prior to appearing on The Golden Bachelorette.

"Living in Oakland, Iowa, in a town of about 1,500 people, there's no one in my dating pool," Jonathan explained. "So, I had to reach out to social media to see if I could connect with someone."

He shared that his previous relationship had a major "distance factor," noting that his girlfriend lived halfway across the world.

"My last relationship lasted about a year and I met a girl online. She was from Norway and I was pretty impulsive and I ended up flying over to Norway to meet her," he told the hosts. "And she flew to the States and met me here a couple times and so it was a good relationship, but it was difficult because that's quite a distance. It's like over 4,000 miles away and a lot of things to consider."

Jonathan reflected on how the long-distance dynamic impacted him, stating that it "became more of a fantasy that I was involved in."

"Tt took me out of my reality, it took me out of my present day, my responsibilities of doing things for my kids, for my job, things like that," he added. "And so the dating life has been kind of hit or miss. There's always been a distance issue with me, but you know I've never given up on it, though."