‘The Golden Bachelorette’s Joan Vassos Is Rooting For ‘The Golden Bachelor in Paradise’: “I Have Two Matches I Think Are Made In Heaven And I Want To Be Married”

By Nicole Gallucci @nicolemichele5
Published Sep. 19, 2024, 9:17 a.m. ET

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The Golden Bachelorette

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The Golden Bachelorette made its highly-anticipated debut on September 18 as Golden Bachelor alum Joan Vassos welcomed 24 men to the Bachelor Mansion. The group of seasoned studs include kind, funny, handsome senior who are fathers, grandfathers, and just plain full of wisdom. In the end, however, Vassos can only choose one man to be with outside of the show. That means 23 eligible bachelors will leave broken-hearted and single…unless, of course, Vassos fixes them up with her Golden Gals.

When chatting with Vassos at a high tea event in New York City the night before her premiere, Decider asked the 61-year-old Golden Bachelorette lead if she saw any of her exes from the show with the women from her Golden Bachelor season, and she gave a resounding YES!

“That is such a great question, because I absolutely have at least two matches that I think are made in heaven and that I want to be married. I swear I did. And I think that is a really cute thing, because all the Golden ladies really want to meet the Golden guys. So we need to figure out some way to make that happen.”

When speaking with Decider earlier this year at the 2024 Television Critics Association’s press tour, the Bachelor franchise’s executive producers Bennett Graebner, Jason Ehrlich, and Claire Freeland assured us some sort of senior Bachelor in Paradise spinoff is definitely a possibility.

“We would all love to see what that looks like,” Ehrlich said. “There are so many deserving women,” Freeland added, referencing The Golden Bachelor cast. “When we think about what other opportunities are there for these women who have connected so much with the audience, and who have just so much more story to tell, it’s very exciting to think what the possibilities could be — whether it’s Paradise or something else.”

'The Golden Bachelor's Natascha, Ellen, Faith, Sandra, April, and Susan
Photos: ABC ; Illustration: Dillen Phelps

While I don’t think we should send a bunch of seniors to a sweltering hot beach in Mexico for several weeks, some sort of Golden mixer that gives Golden Bachelorette gents and Golden Bachelor icons like April Kirkwood, Susan Noles, Natascha Hardee, Sandra Mason, and more yet another opportunity to find late-in-life love sounds nice, doesn’t it? Vassos certainly thinks so!

“If it’s Paradise, great. If it’s just like, ‘Let’s have like a reunion, like a party with everybody’ or something, I think it would be so fun,” Vassos told Decider.

We’re not the only members of Bachelor Nation who sense potential between the Golden guys and gals either. During The Golden Bachelorette‘s premiere, viewers started sharing their dream matchups from both seasons on social media, with two popular pairs being Susan Noles and Jack Lencioni (both love to cook and have big personalities) and Natascha Hardee and Gary, Tina Turner’s GODSON (both love to laugh and light up every room).

While we’ll have to wait and see which couples Vassos has in mind once the season concludes (or maybe during the “Men Tell All” episode) she reiterated, “My God. I do have two matches that I think are going to get there.”

Fingers crossed the Golden Love Fest can continue in between seasons!

New episodes of The Golden Bachelorette premiere Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. on ABC with next-day streaming on Hulu.