Kansan Chock Chapple Defends Himself After ‘Golden Bachelorette’ Fan Backlash

Chock Chapple is speaking out about criticism he has received from some fans of “The Golden Bachelorette.” Be forewarned that this story will contain spoilers for the final episode of the show!

Chapple spoke out in a November 14 article published by Us Weekly. Specifically, he wanted to respond to fans who accused him of being a man with “no commitments.”

Chapple is divorced; in addition, he lost his fiancee Kathy White-Goree to brain cancer, according to the Wichita Eagle. Chapple was Joan Vassos’s final pick on the final episode, and he got down on one knee and proposed to her, a proposal she accepted.

“There’s a little bit of backstory on this, and I want to explain this because I did catch some heat on social media for being a guy with no commitments,” Chock, 61, told Us Weekly.

“I had a great marriage for 12 years. This happens to more than 50 percent of the people — it ended,” he told Us Weekly, which described his ex-wife as Heather, with whom he has two kids. “And then I was involved with someone for nine years.” That’s a reference to Chapple’s fiancee Kathy who died in 2022, Us Weekly reported.

“We both had kids in elementary and high school and she was very adamant about getting the kids out of school before we got married. That was a decision that I supported,” he told Us Weekly of why he was with Kathy for nine years without getting married. “And the reason why I bring that up is I wanted to get married. … I wanted to show [Joan] how committed I was to her and how much I loved her.”

Joan Vassos Revealed That She & Chock Chapple Have Always Wanted to Live in New York, the Report Says

Vassos also spoke to Us Weekly about the couple’s planned living arrangements.

“We know that we’re gonna spend time in Maryland and Kansas, but then we have this really fun plan because both of us have always dreamed — and we’re finally at this weird stage in life for making this dream come true — that we live in a big city, and, specifically, we’ve always wanted to live in New York,” Vassos said to Us Weekly. “So Chock surprised me and said, ‘I want us to go find a place,'” she told Us Weekly.

Chapple also responded to criticism that he was unfair to the other men in the bowling alley date by hogging Vassos’s attention.

“The topic [has been] the bowling alley date. I’ve looked back at it, there’s been a lot of things said about it, ” Chapple told Us. “It was just so natural that Joan and I were pulled together. And Guy came up to me and he said, ‘Hey, can I have some time?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ … I didn’t go pull Joan away, I didn’t do anything. … It was the first time the guys were able to see, firsthand, the connection that Joan and I had. And I could see why some of ’em were frustrated because they cared for her.”

Chock Chapple & Joan Vassos Both Lost Partners Tragically

Chapple’s fiancee died at age 52. He shares this tragedy in common with Vassos, who lost her husband to pancreatic cancer.

White-Goree’s obituary says, “Katherine Elizabeth White Goree died on October 12, 2022. Kathy was 52 years old. She is survived by her children, Charles Thomas Goree and Addison Gray Goree. She is also survived by her parents, Thomas White Sr. and his wife Teresa, and Sharon White Gruber, and her husband J Richard Gruber. Other survivors include her brothers, Thomas White, Jr, and Andrew White and his husband Robert Walden, and her fiancé, Chock Chapple.”

According to White-Goree’s obit, “Kathy was born on March 26, 1970, in Wichita Kansas. She attended Collegiate School and graduated from Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School. She attended the University of Kansas and graduated from Rockhurst University in Kansas City. She served as Vice President at White and Ellis Drilling, Inc. and expressed her love and enjoyment of working with her Dad each day.”