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Joan Vassos is speaking out about her late husband. In an exclusive interview with ET's Denny Directo ahead of her Golden Bachelorette debut, Joan opened up about how her late husband, John Vassos, inspired her to accept the role. John and Joan were married for 32 years, before his 2021 death, which came after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

He was 59. "I feel like he maybe had a little hand in me actually getting here, honestly," Joan told ET. He told me right before he passed away, 'You need to go out and find somebody else.



You were the best wife in the world and I want you to be happy.' He gave me this wonderful gift before he died, and he said go and do something, and so here I am." As for what John would think of her trying to find love on TV -- first with Gerry Turner on The Golden Bachelor , and now with her own season of the franchise -- Joan admitted that she "thought a lot about that" before she took the leap.

"I had a conversation with a friend of mine and I was like, 'God, I had the offer to be on it and I'm a little afraid that it is not honoring his memory by doing this. [I feel] like I'm betraying him in some way,'" she recalled. "Obviously I'm not, but I had that feeling for some reason.

She said, 'You are nuts! He would have loved this.'" When she thought about it, Joan agreed with her pal's assessment. "He loved reality TV.

He was a dive in with both feet to anything you do [kind of person]," she said. "I think he's up there going, 'Look, that's my wife do.

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