For those who watched the first season of “The Golden Bachelor” on ABC, it was easy to immediately become a fan of all 22 of the senior women competing for Gerry Turner’s affections. They were lively, confident and warm — people with interesting stories and lessons to share. None was more sweet and kind than Joan Vassos, the 61-year-old Maryland grandmother who last week was named the star of the inaugural series “The Golden Bachelorette.
” The show doesn’t premiere until this fall — which means it’s probably already being filmed and Vassos is probably on her way to finding true love. ABC has not released a start date for the series, which will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
and the next day on streaming service Hulu. So until then, here are five things to know about “The Golden Bachelorette.” Vassos, a resident of Rockville, graduated the University of Maryland with a degree in computer science, according to her LinkedIn profile.
(You don’t need to know when — ask your own grandmother about her days at College Park.) She now works as a school administrator in alumni relations for Landon School in Bethesda. She has four kids — two sons and two daughters — and when one of her daughter’s postpartum health concerns forced Vassos to depart “The Golden Bachelor” earlier that expected, she wrote on social media: “I traded the mansion for motherhood.
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Family comes first, period. Once a mother, always a mother. I’ll always choose my kids first.
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