Joan Vassos and Chock Chapples’ long-distance relationship plans explained

The inaugural season of The golden bachelorette ended with Joan Vassos and Chock Chapple engaged, but they don’t plan on moving in together anytime soon. Joan, 61, made her television debut as a contestant on The Golden Bachelor. THE Bachelor spin-off made history as the first unscripted dating show to focus on the love lives of seniors. Although things were promising between Joan and 72-year-old Gerry Turner, Joan had to leave the show early to deal with a family emergency. Joana Bachelor The journey seemed to be over, but it was just beginning.

It wasn’t long before Joan was cast as The golden bachelorette. She found herself outside the iconic mansion, The golden bachelorette cast. Among the men was 60-year-old Chock, whom Joan took an immediate liking to. She even gave him the highly coveted first solo date. After a season of dates, laughter and difficult choices, Joan gave her last rose boutonniere to Chock. Although the couple got engaged, they decided on a less traditional union. Read on to learn more about Joan and Chock’s unique living arrangement.

Joan and Chock come from different places

Kilometers away

Before being cast The Golden Bachelor In season one, Joan was living a relatively quiet life as an administrator at a private school in Maryland. She was married to John Vassos, with whom she had four children, for 32 happy years until he passed away in 2021. John was the love of Joan’s loveand she was devastated by the loss. She never thought she would open her heart again, but before he died, John told Joan he wanted her to get married again after he was gone.

Like Joan, Chock has known profound loss. Chock lived in Kansas and was married to Heather Chapple for 12 years.and the couple had two children before divorcing. After their split, Chock met Katherine Elizabeth White Goree, and they were engaged for nine years before she passed away in 2022. Chock also lost her mother while filming the season and even left to take care of her family. The moment was similar to when Joan left Gerry’s season, but even though Joan never returned, Chock rushed to get back to Joan as quickly as he could.

Joan and Chock’s long-distance relationship dreams

That was her plan all along

Shortly after being announced as The golden bacheloretteshe was interviewed by CNNwhere she said she would not rush into marriage. She explained that she felt like people needed more time to get to know each other before making such a serious commitment. She told the interviewer that she did not intend to get married right away, Had no intention of leaving Marylandand was open to a long-distance relationship.

The Golden Bachelor season 1 also ended with an engagement. Gerry proposed to Theresa Nist, 70, and she accepted. They tied the knot in a lavish dream wedding that aired on ABC a few weeks after the couple went public with their relationship. The newlyweds were only married for three months when they announced their divorce. They never lived in the same state and the long-distance marriage quickly fell apart. Now Joan and Chock are following the same path and history may be repeating itself.

Will Joan and Chock last?

They have a lot of work to do

While it’s impossible to predict the future, Joan and Chock have a difficult road ahead, in addition to the long-distance nature of their relationship. One problem is that Joan still doesn’t seem to be over her late husband, as she hadn’t been alone for very long before joining the cast of The Golden Bachelor. For Chock’s part, the fact that he was in a nine-year engagement suggests that his divorce could have left him too embarrassed to walk down the aisle. Regardless of your challenges, The golden bachelorette couple would be better off if they didn’t live in different states.