Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos Was ‘Very Happy’ When Chock Returned (Exclusive)

Joan Vassos is down to her final four men and heading off to hometown dates on “The Golden Bachelorette.” 

She joined “Extra’s” Billy Bush to chat about her journey so far and what’s still to come. 

The reality star shared how her kids have felt watching the show, laughing about how her daughter just called her out for kissing four guys in an episode! 

Joan said her kids asked, “Are you going to kiss all these guys?” and Vassos explained, “So that was way bigger, the whole kissing thing, and then my daughter called me after the last episode. She’s like, ‘Mom, you kissed so many guys.’” 

Vassos told her daughter, “No, I think I did [kiss] two.” Her daughter replied, “Four, you kissed four guys in one episode.”

Joan also spoke about her connection with Chock Chapple, calling him a “good candidate.” She described him as a “Midwest nice guy, good person, little bit kind of of a cute accent.” She added, “He’s a really good guy. He’s a good choice. I have a lot of good guys.”

Vassos was sad about his departure from the show after his mother passed away, but she was excited when he was able to return. 

“I was really sad, because I had just been that person in the ‘Golden Bachelor’ season and I knew that I had planned, had hoped to come back… and that literally never happened, and so even though he said to me ‘I’m coming back’…  I thought, ‘You don’t know what’s going to happen at home.’”

She said of his return, “I was so excited because the longer he stayed away, and mind you he was only away for two days, I got less and less hopeful that he was coming back,” adding, “I was very happy when he came back.”

Billy said of one of Joan’s other remaining suitors, Pascal Ibgui, “Pascal, you don’t trust him yet. You’re like, ‘You are so cute and so charming, and such a little piston.’ He’s just a fiery little fella. I think you want to trust him, but there’s a little voice in there.”

Joan laughed and said, “He’s like, you’re attracted to those guys when you’re younger, the bad boy. The guy that your mom is gonna be like, ‘Yeah, he cannot come to the house.’ He’s like that older version of the bad boy.”

Plus, Joan reflected on how emotionally challenging the experience was and how much she evolved. 

“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said. “They make it look easy on TV, just go to have all these fun dates and you get like all these men to choose from. It’s way harder because you’re taking in all of their history and their pain and their emotions and you’re trying to put yourself out there also, so the emotional part of this journey is way harder than it looks and nobody tells you that — you just have to experience it.”

Joan added, “I came out such a better person, more evolved, happier by leaps and bounds and every man said the same thing. The journey you go through is worth what you get in the end.”

Vassos played coy about if she has a special someone, teasing ,“I found a lot of love this season.”