Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos Breaks Down Biggest Premiere Moments

Joan Vassos is almost as happy as Us that The Golden Bachelorette is finally here.

“I feel like I can breathe a little bit,” the 61-year-old lead exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the Wednesday, September 18, premiere. “There’s been a lot of lead-up. I taped the whole season and had a little break, but there’s been a lot of hype now, so I am happy it’s finally here. I am dying for this to not just be about me [and] for it to be about the journey and the men too. We’re dating for a million other people [and] to show them that when you’re in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or whatever, that it still could be fun. Dating can be fun, and finding love is worth the journey.”

Joan met 24 men during Wednesday’s premiere. When asked whether night one was easier or harder than she expected, Joan told Us “a little bit of both.”

“It’s a really long night, and you have to be on your game the whole night because every conversation is important, because at the end of the night, you have a rose ceremony,” she said. “Every single time that limo door opened, I was excited to see who was gonna get out. I was excited to see if they had something fun as their entrance or did they just have something really sincere to say.”

Among the limo entrances was Captain Kim showing up in uniform, Jack singing “My Way,” David bringing a horse and Bachelor season 28 winner Kelsey Anderson showing up to introduce dad Mark. The man who stood out most to Joan, however, was Keith. While she told Us that she had “a lot of runner-ups” for the first impression rose, the 62-year-old girl dad with the station wagon got the coveted flower.

“I could have given out 10 [first impression roses]. I am not lying. I’m not exaggerating,” Joan said, explaining that Keith bringing a station wagon reminded her of childhood vacations. “Which made me think like he may have grown up in a similar way that I did. We didn’t have a ton of money and we drove [20 hours] to Florida. We lived kind of similar upbringings. And then I remember sitting on the hood of that car and just having this really easy conversation. And even when we were getting the cue that it was time for him to move on and the next car was coming in, I remember him saying, ‘Oh, let’s just get outta here. Let’s just grab a bottle of wine and some cheese and a blanket and go to the beach.’ And I was like, ‘God, that’s exactly what I’d like to be doing right now.’”

During the evening, the twosome chatted further and kissed when she gave him the first impression rose. “I got that feeling of comfort and safety,” she continued. “He’s like this big teddy bear that I just immediately connected with [and] felt really comfortable. It was way more about the feeling that I had with Keith.”

That feeling made Joan feel confident that she made the right decision to be the OG Golden Bachelorette after leaving Gerry Turner’s inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor early.

“You go into this not knowing if you’re gonna have a connection with anybody. And there were several guys that I felt like when they stepped out of the limo and I had a little conversation with them and [when] they walked away, I thought, ‘OK, this could work, I’m feeling good,’” she recalled.

Often on The Bachelor or Bachelorette, the competition between the cast quickly begins after the limo entrances. On The Golden Bachelorette, that couldn’t have been further from the case.

“They surprised the heck outta me. I thought that they were gonna talk about sports and never [thought they’d] talk about their history and their stories. If you’re on this show, you probably have a backstory [and] there is a reason that you’re there — you’ve led a rich life before coming here,” Joan told Us. “So I figured I was gonna get some guys with some personality and some backstories. I had no idea what great friends they were gonna be night one. They bonded. They were emotional. They were open. They talked about their kids and about what it was like being a single dad. And they were so cute — they cried together and then they laughed and they teased. It was like they had known each other their whole lives.”

Post-arrivals is also when things can start to get physical between the lead and the suitors — which is something Joan was prepared for.

“I had no hard, set rules. My kids certainly would’ve wanted me to say that I did,” Joan told Us with a laugh. “I may have promised ’em I wouldn’t kiss anybody on night one, but I think you need to kiss people! I’m sorry. I know that it’s cringey when you’re 61 and you do it on TV, but it has to happen. There’s a physical part of a relationship if you wanna end up with a person that’s not just your friend [who really is] your person for life. I knew I’d be kissing some guys and I didn’t have a rule on night one [because] I didn’t think it would happen much. I would’ve stopped ones that I didn’t feel comfortable with. But if I felt comfortable with it, I was OK.”

After giving Keith the first impression rose, Joan began to hand out the 17 other roses. Halfway through the ceremony, she left to check in with host Jesse Palmer.

“I actually asked for more roses. I said, ‘Can everybody stay? I can’t do this,’” Joan told Us. “And I was looking for a little pep talk from Jesse because Jesse had been a Bachelor, so he got it. And he and I had conversations previously about the journey and his experiences [and we continue to]. Throughout the whole journey, you’ll hear other conversations that he and I have that were really helpful. He’s [said], ‘Everybody knows why they’re here and that this is a possibility. And that for you to get to the end of this journey and be in the right place with one person at the end, you have to do this. You have to eliminate people. It’s how it works.’”

The Golden Bachelorette airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.