SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details from the season finale of The Golden Bachelorette.
Joan Vassos and Chock Chapple can officially go public with their happily ever after!
The Golden Bachelorette ended on a blissful note Wednesday night, with Vassos affirming her feelings for Chapple and introducing him to her family in Bora Bora. After their final date, Vassos realizes she is ready to accept a proposal from Chapple, should it come, and decides to preemptively end things with runner-up Guy Gansert.
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When Chapple gets down on one knee, Vassos not only says yes, she also tells him that she loves him for the very first time. Find a more in depth recap of the final episode here.
Watch on Deadline
In the interview below, Vassos and Chapple spoke with Deadline about their engagement and what’s next for the happy couple.
DEADLINE: Joan, was there anything about leading a season of this show that surprised you, or that you weren’t expecting?
JOAN VASSOS: It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, honestly. Obviously, I thought dating 24 men was going to be a challenge. I didn’t count on all the emotions that were bubbling up. I thought, “This is just going to be a pretty joyous journey getting to know people, exploring connections and exploring relationships.” About halfway through the season, or maybe third week of the season, it kind of hit me that I had all these emotions that I didn’t know I had pent up and had to work through them before I could really explore the relationships. A lot of that had to do with the passing of my late husband, and figuring out those feelings that I never really had to face because I hadn’t had a relationship.
At this point, I was kind of developing feelings for Chock, and I, all of sudden, was like, “How does this work? How do I let go of John to let Chock in? Do I need to do that?” [I had to] kind of to work through a lot of that. So that was surprising. I didn’t count on that. I certainly would’ve explore that before I came on the show, if I had anticipated it, but I never did. But, the fact that this is such an accelerated journey, you need to process those feelings really quickly, and it encouraged me to do that, and I feel like I did. I got to where I needed to. Here I am sitting with the second love of my life, and so glad I did, but it was not an easy journey.
DEADLINE: Chock, what was going through your head as you walked toward Joan leading up to the proposal?
CHOCK CHAPPLE: I do what I call a self check. The day before, Joan came over and visited me in the bungalow, which was just absolutely gorgeous. We had some time on the couch, then we went outside and we embraced for a kiss. And I’d spent three weeks trying to get this person to tell me she loved me, and she would not do it. And we had this kiss that just solidified [our feelings]. So it is the power of a kiss that just solidified that we were good. We were making the right decision, that she was comfortable with me, and it told me that she loved me. That’s what it was. Then we get over to the private island, and I had no butterflies at all. None, none. The only thing I was really concerned about was our hair, because it was blowing so bad.
DEADLINE: It did look very windy.
CHAPPLE: It was very, but it was a fantastic day. The only thing that could have been better about that day and then yesterday is if my mother would have been able to experience it.
DEADLINE: How did you navigate that decision to return to the show and pursue Joan after losing your mother?
CHAPPLE: When this happens, I don’t care how old you are, you struggle with making the right decision. So I was able to spend a week with my mother in Oregon. I’m from Kansas. She was living in Oregon. I couldn’t get her to move back to Kansas. She goes, “This is my home in Oregon.” So I was able to take a caregiver out. It was the same caregiver that we used when Kathy, my fiancée, had brain cancer. So Crystal was out there. [She’s] just a great person, just a godsend. And it happened while we were filming. Then I went to Joan, and I said, “I’ve got this dilemma,” because we had taken care of everything for my mother, the end of life stuff. It was all taken care of. And Joan really pushed me, and she goes, “You need to go see your stepdad. You need to be there for him.” So I left, and it was George who, after it was like three days, he goes, “You need to go back.” He goes, “We’ve got this covered. There’s nothing you can do here, and I want you to go on with your life.” So I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for George.
DEADLINE: How have you been spending the last few months, keeping your engagement a secret?
VASSOS: Oh gosh, it’s been hard. Luckily, we’ve gotten to see each other. So if we had had to be apart and not seen each other, we probably would have relied on our friends and family a lot more, but we got to be together. We do these things called happy couple visits, which The Bachelor arranges for us, and we had five of them. So that’s kind of a lot, and you get to do four or five days at a time. So we were together, getting to know each other better, and falling more and more in love, really, and that was really important together time and not having the outside world infringing on us. Allowing us to just have that part of the journey, I think, really solidified our relationship. We’re so ready to be out now. But that time was really precious.
CHAPPLE: And we knew it would pass.
DEADLINE: What are you most looking forward to now that you can be open about it?
CHAPPLE: It’s really getting on with our lives, and because we couldn’t, from the confidentiality, really say or do much, and now it’s wide open. We’re looking for the place in New York City. We’re just ready to get the families together and start living, having fun, traveling, taking care of life.
VASSOS: I just kind of want to do something really simple, like go out to dinner together. We’ve never done that, so I made reservations for tonight. We’re going out to dinner finally.
DEADLINE: How has the apartment hunting been going?
CHAPPLE: Well, we leave tomorrow afternoon, and then on Monday we have an appointment with a realtor. And for confidentiality reasons, if we didn’t have that with a production company, we’d already have the place. So we just couldn’t let that leak. So sometime in December, we’ll get it all taken care of.
DEADLINE: What would be your biggest piece of advice to anyone who is looking for love in their golden years?
CHAPPLE: As you get older, appearance is not that important. It can be more to one person compared to the other, but it’s compatibility, and you have to get to know that person, and it’s a leap of faith. You have to go, “They’ve got the same morals, beliefs, attitudes,” those type of things. You can be compatible. Because you’re going to spend time with that person, especially if you’re retired, and you better make sure that you are compatible and you love each other.
VASSOS: Most people have hope, and they hope that maybe they find somebody, but hope without action is not going to be successful. So I think you have to be really brave, and that’s harder as you get older, because you are established in your life and like, is the risk worth the reward? Or are things just good enough, and I’m not going to go out there and try? So if you really, really want it, hope is not your strategy, you have to take that leap of faith and go out and do something about it.