10 Reasons Joan Vassos May Be At Risk On The Show (The Gil Ramirez Restraining Order’s A Red Flag)

The Golden Bachelorette season 1 recently premiered and there are already signs the show isn’t protecting Joan Vassos, and it’s concerning. 61-year-old Joan isn’t new to reality TV, as she was a contestant on The Golden Bachelor, but being a contestant is very different from being the lead, and the transition couldn’t have been easy. Joan wasn’t on The Golden Bachelor for very long. Though she and Gerry had a great solo date, she decided to leave the show early to be with her daughter. Joan’s daughter had just given birth and was struggling with postpartum depression. Though it wasn’t an emergency in the truest sense of the world, Joan felt like she had to leave.

Now that Joan is the lead of the show, she can’t just walk away, which puts her in a vulnerable position. The Golden Bachelorette season 1 premiered with Joan meeting the 24 men who would be competing for her roses. Throughout the first few episodes, Joan has already been on some amazing dates and made romantic connections with multiple men. She also had to send many men home, which hadn’t been easy for Joan, who hated to hurt anyone’s feelings. Alas, this is a dating competition, and, before all is said and done, Joan will hurt lots of feelings.

10 The Gil Ramirez Restraining Order Scandal Is Concerning

Producers Were Blindsided

One of the men who received one of Joan’s roses during the premiere of The Golden Bachelorette season 1 was Gil Ramirez, a 60-year-old educator from Mission Viejo, California. According to People, Gil’s ex-girlfriend filed a restraining order against him three months ago, accusing him of stalking her, making unwanted contact with her and her family, and showing up to places he knew she’d be. The restraining order was ultimately dropped, but the damage was done.

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Gil passed a background check before the restraining order was filed. In other words, the incident occurred in the window between the background check and the start of production. Still, a lot can happen in a few months, so it’s hard to imagine that producers didn’t check again closer to the start of The Golden Bachelorette season 1 production. ABC has reported, that since the information came to light, they’ve edited down Gil’s already limited screen time.

9 Producers May Not Put Joan’s Well-Being First

They’re In It For The Ratings

If The Golden Bachelor season 1 was an indication, producers don’t care about Joan, and she has to watch out for herself. Gerry’s season of the show was a massive hit with audiences. Knowing it would be a while before they could produce a female-led version of the show, ABC decided they’d make do with a televised Golden Bachelor wedding.

The lavish, star-studded television event aired on ABC in January, just a few weeks after Gerry proposed to 70-year-old Theresa Nist. As rushed as the marriage was, the divorce happened just as quickly, with the septuagenarian newlyweds announcing their divorce after only three short months of marriage. In hindsight, Gerry and Theresa shouldn’t have let themselves get carried away by the show’s meteoric success.

8 Joan Is Too Sensitive For This Type Of Speed Dating

The Soul Of A Poet

During an early episode of The Golden Bachelor season 1, Gerry took several women on a group date, and Joan was one of them. This group date ended up being the first annual Golden talent show. Each of the women was told to put together an act to perform, and whoever the judges picked would get a solo date with Gerry. Joan panicked. The private school administrator didn’t think she had talent.

When it was Joan’s turn, she got up and read a sweet poem she had written for Gerry. The moment was so sweet and authentic, she beat out all the flashier acts and won the solo date with Gerry. Though they hit it off during the one-on-one time, Joan received a call from her daughter when they got back to The Bachelor mansion, and Joan decided to leave early.

7 Some The Golden Bachelorette Suitors Are Just Out For A Good Time

Party Animals

The men of The Golden Bachelorette season 1, who were introduced in an ABC trailer on YouTube, were excited about meeting Joan, but they were also interested in having a good time while enjoying the grounds at The Bachelor mansion. They also liked each other, and there was a collegiate attitude among the men. Though it’s great the men get along, they may be getting along too well. Several of them expressed awe at the luxurious mansion and its various accouterments.

Jack was excited about The Bachelor mansion’s lavish swimming pool and was doing multiple cannonballs into the pool when he was supposed to be wooing Joan. To be fair to Jack, he did take a break from the pool to cook Joan an elaborate meal in the mansion’s expansive chef’s kitchen. This seemed to impress her, as she decided to give Jack a rose at the end of the first episode, but she eliminated him during the second episode.

6 The Chances Of Joan Finding True Love Are Slim

Odds Aren’t In Her Favor

Though The Bachelor franchise doesn’t have the worst track record among reality television shows, that’s not saying much. The bottom line is reality television may not be the absolute worst place to meet a significant other, it’s certainly one of the worst. Getting to know people is already hard. Adding cameras, an audience and cut-throat competition to the mix doesn’t up the odds of success.

For her part, Joan seems to have realistic expectations for being on The Golden Bachelorette season 1. In a May interview with CNN, Joan said that regardless of what happened during her season, it wouldn’t end with her rushing into marriage. She talked about how she wasn’t open to moving, and if she met someone who lived far away, she’d be content with a long-distance marriage.

5 Gerry Turner Couldn’t Make His Marriage Last

Golden Bachelor Curse?

When Gerry and Theresa announced their Golden divorce, they cited the fact that they couldn’t agree on a place to live. In fact, during the entire three months of their marriage, Gerry and Theresa never lived in the same state. Gerry lived in Indiana, in the lakeside dream house he had built with his late wife, Toni Turner before she passed away in 2017. Theresa lived in New Jersey and was reluctant to move to Indiana to live in a house her new husband had built for his late wife.

Joan had already made it clear that she would not be rushing into marriage, and she also expressed being open to the idea of a long-distance marriage. The Golden Bachelorette star understands that, by the time people are in their 60s, they’ve been full lives and will be unlikely to uproot for someone they met on a reality dating show. Unless Joan meets someone who lives close to her in Maryland, she’s not expecting to relocate for love anytime soon.

4 Joan May Not Have Gerry’s Star Power

X Factor

A lot can be said about Gerry, but no one can ever accuse him of being boring. The tall, attractive Gerry is charming and telegenic, which is why he so quickly became an overnight name. Though Joan is a perfectly lovely woman, The Golden Bachelorette season 1 star could lack Gerry’s star power and raw charisma. One of the best things about Joan is that she seems like a completely normal person who happens to be looking for love on national television.

This could make for a particularly entertaining season because audiences can better identify with her. However, it can also make for a boring season because she doesn’t bring enough drama. Bachelor Nation fans are a fickle bunch, and though they love Joan now, if she doesn’t end up having the X factor, they’ll turn on her faster than they turned on Gerry.

3 Joan’s Kids May Not Like Seeing Her With All Those Men

She Doesn’t Want To Embarrass Them

As the mother of four adult children, Joan had to handle things carefully. She explained that two of her children were excited about her looking for love on reality television, while her other two children were less excited about the prospect. They told their mother that they didn’t want to have to watch her making out with multiple men on national television.

Night one of The Golden Bachelor saw Gerry kissing multiple women, while Joey Graziadei’s season of The Bachelor opened with Joey kissing no fewer than seven women. So far, Joan had kept the promise she made to her children to not kiss too many men. On the first night of The Golden Bachelorette season 1, Joan only kissed one man, 68-year-old Keith. Though she has kissed a few others since then, she has done a good job of mostly avoiding excessive physical contact that may embarrass her children, while putting her at extra risk.

The Internet Is Undefeated

The internet is a mean place, and no corner of the internet is meaner than the comment section. The Golden Bachelorette season 1 producers can protect Joan during the season, but no one can protect her from the comment section. Joan can look to Gerry for an example of how quickly people will rush to an Instagram comment section with their two cents on their personal lives. Joan‘s Instagram account currently has 69.9K and growing. A brief scroll of her comment sections reveals that, right now, Joan is still enjoying a Bachelor Nation honeymoon as the new lead, so her comment sections are an array of congratulations and well wishes.

Joan recently posted an Instagram photo of herself waiting for her men outside The Bachelor mansion on night one of The Golden Bachelorette season 1, and the comments section is already lousy with advice like, “Mark deserves the first impression rose. He won all of Bachelor Nation’s hearts.” 58-year-old Mark Anderson is one of Joan’s contestants and a fan favorite who happens to be the father of Kelsey Anderson of The Bachelor season 28 fame.

1 Joan May Not Be Over Her Late Husband

Survivor’s Guilt

Long before appearing on The Golden Bachelor, Joan was married to John Vassos for 32 years until 2021, when he passed away after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. In a January Instagram post, Joan shared a family photo of her with John, surrounded by their adult children. She wrote that it had been three years since she lost John and that she continued to be deeply shaken by losing John. Though three years seems like a long time, it may not be enough time for Joan to be ready to open her heart again.

The premiere episode of The Golden Bachelorette season 1 opens with Joan talking about how much she loved her husband, and how safe he always made her feel. Before he died, John told Joan that he didn’t want her to be alone forever. He told her he wanted her to find love again, but she may not be ready yet.

Sources: People, ABC, Joan Vassos/Instagram, Joan Vassos/Instagram, Joan Vassos/Instagram