“Take the Leap of Faith”: ’The Golden Bachelorette’s Joan Vassos Shares What She Learned From Her Relationship With Chock Chapple

The Golden Bachelorette leading lady Joan Vassos is encouraging everyone to take a chance on love after she has found happiness with Chock Chapple. After getting engaged to Chapple during the first-ever Season finale of The Golden Bachelorette, which aired on November 13, 2024, Vassos has only grown to love him more. In fact, she claims that being with Chapple is better than she could have ever imagined.

In the preview for her upcoming special titled The Year: 2024 with ABC 20/20, Vassos reflected on her journey on The Golden Bachelorette. The reality star expressed how happy she was to have taken a leap of faith with the show, because it eventually led to her finding the love of her life. Vassos shared that she couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of finally starting her life with Chapple.

Vassos claimed that her relationship with Chapple was proof that love has no age. She added that she hopes people can take inspiration from their journey and stop holding themselves back in their pursuit of love. In Vassos’s exact words: “What do you have to lose? Something great could happen.” For now, the couple are trying to find a place of their own in New York City as they continue getting to know each other in the real world.

Joan Vassos Has Plenty of Advice for Adults Trying To Find Love

Joan Vassos has always been extremely vulnerable about her love life. In the early episodes of The Golden Bachelorette, she opened up about losing John Vassos, her husband of 32 years, to pancreatic cancer in 2021. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the first-ever Golden Bachelorette confessed that she felt guilty forming connections with other men on the show. In her exact words: “I almost felt like I was cheating on John.” She added that before passing away, her former husband had encouraged her to find love again.

Vassos then shared that she worked with the team of psychiatrists on set who helped her deal with her grief while helping her envision a new beginning. After that, Vassos felt like it became easier for her to talk to her potential suitors about her late husband in an attempt to keep his memory alive. And now, she hopes to help others do the same!

During her appearance on the Motivation with Marissa podcast, Vassos shared her experience of starting over. She admitted that opening herself up to love again was overwhelming, because she thought no one could ever come close to her late husband. However, she advised people to think of finding love after loss as a completely different journey. She admitted that initially, she knew she wanted a relationship but her heart wasn’t ready. However, the Golden Bachelorette lead confessed that her heart eventually caught up once she started developing feelings for other men.

The Golden Bachelorette Season 1 is available to stream on Hulu.