Ready to Find Love? Meet the First Leading Lady of 'The Golden Bachelorette'

Following the shocking news of Golden Bachelor couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist's split, ABC is here to mend our broken hearts. In May 2024, the network finally announced the leading lady for the highly-anticipated spinoff series, The Golden Bachelorette.

In keeping with tradition, the golden-aged woman meeting 20 or more potential husbands is someone we already know — and whom Gerry said goodbye to during his season. Well, who is it? Keep reading to find out who will be taking center stage on the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelorette!

During ABC's upfront presentation at New York's Radio City Music Hall on May 14, Ryan Seacrest revealed that Joan Vassos will be the first Golden Bachelorette. The brand-new series, which debuts on Sept. 18, 2024, will air on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST.

Despite being a frontrunner for Gerry's heart, the lovely 61-year-old school administrator made the difficult decision to leave in Week 3 to be with her daughter who had just given birth weeks prior to filming for The Golden Bachelor commenced.

Joan further explained her exit during the "Women Tell All" episode in November 2023, telling the audience, "My daughter had a really serious case of postpartum depression, and ... she needed me. She needed her mom, and I didn't think twice. I knew I had to be there; I heard it in her voice. I could not get on the plane fast enough."

Joan hoped to return and rekindle her connection with Gerry, but it sadly "wasn't in the cards," she told TheWrap during the taping of the "Women Tell All" episode.

Thankfully, the stars have aligned because as the first leading lady of ABC's The Golden Bachelorette, Joan gets another chance at finding the second love of her life — and we're rooting for her every step of the way!

In mid-May 2024, Joan sat down with CNN to discuss her upcoming journey as the first Golden Bachelorette leading lady. The blonde beauty told the outlet that while she isn't rushing into marriage, she still hopes to find her "life partner" during her journey.

"If it ends up in engagement, I'm open to that. I do believe this process works. I've seen it work for so many couples on The Bachelor, so I believe in the process," Joan explained. "If it ends up in, 'You and I are going to get to know each other better in the outside world,' that's perfect also."

She continued, "I probably won't rush into a marriage right away — and not only because of what happened with Gerry and Theresa. I think it takes some time to really get to know somebody. Out in the wild, in the real world, you need to spend some time there."

Joan also disclosed that her four kids are her biggest cheerleaders for finding love, but she will never move away from her family for a man. She told CNN, "I'll never leave my family. They are the most important people in the world to me obviously, and I would expect that to be the same for the person that I end up with because family is so important to me, that would have to be a key part of their personality."

Sure, society often frowns on dating after a certain age — but Joan is out to prove that your 60s can be a vibrant time for love and living life to the fullest!

"I think there's cultures in the world that revere the older people and they think that they have knowledge and they have this experience of life, and I don't think that’s super true in our society," she told CNN. "So, I think [The Golden Bachelor] showed the side of, we're not old. We don't have canes. Some people on the show had hearing aids, but nobody could even see they had them.

She elaborated, "Growing old now is very different. We were all very fit, we exercised, we shared great stories about raising our kids and we learned so much from each other. There's a lot of knowledge that we have inside of us because we've lived life."

"In our culture, I feel like growing old is not a dignified thing," Joan concluded. "You're just supposed to kind of fade in the back, [and] take a backseat to the next generation. I'm hoping that we change that a little bit. We're still fun and energetic and we know how to use our phones."

Stay tuned for the premiere of The Golden Bachelorette, which airs on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, at 8 p.m. EST.