Joan Vassos looks back on her Golden Bachelor experience. After the 60-year-old private school principal decided to leave the show to help her daughter, who recently gave birth, she spoke on her Instagram Story about her decision to give up the chance of a relationship with Gerry Turner.
“A big thank you to everyone who expressed their concern for my family,” Joan wrote. “It is a privilege to be the mother of four amazing children and the grandmother (they call me Jojo) of two wonderful grandchildren. But once a mother, always a mother, and sometimes finding love doesn’t work out.”
“Everyone at home is doing great and I hope I get the chance at love again one day,” she added.
Instagram / Joan Vassos
Joan also expressed her love for her fellow contestants, writing, “I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such sweet and supportive women.”
Instagram / Joan Vassos
The situation played out on Thursday night’s episode of the show when Joan won one-on-one with Gerry thanks to her poetry performance during the group’s talent show.
Joan and Gerry’s meal together couldn’t have gone better; She walked away with a rose and he left feeling as if they had just taken “the first step toward a very strong connection.”
ABC/John Fleenor
However, the next morning, Joan received a call from her daughter, who had recently had a baby, and decided to head home.
“My daughter just had a baby. It wasn’t a normal, everyday delivery at all. It’s going wrong. Even if everything went well, you need your mother,” she told the cameras. “My family will always come first. Once you become a mother, you are always a mother, even when your children are older. Nothing is more important.”
After breaking the news to the ladies and admitting she was “heartbroken,” she told Gerry about her impending departure.
“For the first time I imagined a life with someone else, which is just incredible. It healed my heart, honestly,” she told him. “…As much as I don’t want to leave and leave our trip, I have to be a parent and come home to my children.”
Gerry understood but was admittedly “disappointed” and told Joan: “I was thrilled that we were having a conversation like that, but there is a moral compass that we both share. And sometimes the hardest thing is to do the right thing.”
Gerry cried as Joan got out and she was also touched as she told the cameras: “Maybe Gerry has healed my heart a little. He helped me on the journey because the older you get, the more invisible you become. People don’t see you anymore.” . You’re not as important as you were when you were younger.”
This is one of the first of several heartbreaking moments for Gerry, as he previously told ET that he ended up in an “incredibly bad situation” by falling in love with two women over the course of his journey.
“When you’re down to the last two people in that time and with that much investment, you have really strong feelings for them, even though you know they’re not the right person. “They’re so close,” he said. “You are so deeply connected and then you realize they have to go. It’s like, oh my God, it was an incredibly bad situation.”
“The Golden Bachelor” airs Thursdays on ABC. Follow Gerry Turner’s journey to love with ET’s coverage of the show.
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