Exclusive Interview
‘Golden Bachelorette’s Joan Vassos & Chock Chapple Reveal Wedding Update, Summer Plans & More
It’s been a year since Joan Vassos and Chock Chapple met while filming Season 1 of The Golden Bachelorette in 2024. Fans then watched their love story unfold on the show when it aired in the fall, culminating with their engagement during the finale. Since then, Chapple and Vassos have been settling into their new normal.
With her in Maryland and him in Kansas, they do whatever it takes to see each other as much as possible, and have admitted that they have no plans to rush walking down the aisle. However, the lovebirds spilled some never-before-heard scoop about their wedding plans to Swooon for our Summer Catch-Up series!
“I don’t think I want to do anything huge,” Vassos admitted. “I want to do something kind of small, mostly family, I’m thinking. I wouldn’t hate to do a destination wedding. That could be fun because everybody gets a vacation out of it and we get to celebrate with everyone for more than one night. I don’t think we have any non-negotiables, other than our family has to be there. They’re the most important people, obviously, so we would never, like, elope or anything.”
Scroll down for more from our chat with Vassos and Chapple, and make sure to check back this weekend for another update on their living situation!
What plans do you have coming up this summer?
Vassos: We have a two week vacation. I have a beach that’s kind of close to me. I live in Maryland, so we’re going to Ocean City, Maryland, with his kids, and all of my kids, and grandkids, so we’re going to have a huge house full of everybody and just hang out at the beach for two weeks.
Have you been able to do any blended family stuff like that aside from the holidays?
Vassos: Kind of only the holidays because his kids work in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chock is obviously in Kansas, I’m in Maryland, so combining everybody is a little bit of a logistical thing. But we’re going to do it again in November. We’re going to Disney World.
What is your work schedule like these days?
Chapple: I’m working 40 hours a week. Regular work. The telecommuting’s a little tough for me. I’m a pick up the phone, go-see [guy]. I’m in the insurance business, so it’s picking up the phone, going to see people, getting appointments done. Things have changed since COVID. We do a lot of Zoom meetings, those type of things. I don’t like it, though. I like the face-to-face. I want the clients we work with to know who we are and show them the services we offer. It’s still a little bit of a juggling act, but we’ve developed some very good people here, so I can be gone. I just gotta be on my game. Usually I’ll spend the morning answering e-mails, doing things like that. So just trying to keep it all going, making sure I got all my appointments scheduled, and keeping everyone happy.
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Joan, are you still working? You’re kind of a full-time influencer now…
Vassos: I know, it’s kind of weird and embarrassing. Who does this at the age of 62? I feel very lucky that I got to kind of jump into that role a little bit and ease myself into that role. When I came back from filming [Golden Bachelor], I left filming on a Friday and went to work on Monday morning, but the press schedule for Golden Bachelorette was a lot bigger than what it had been for some of the other shows. So a two-week press schedule was more like a five-week press schedule. When I gave my boss the days I was going to be gone, he was like, ‘Yeah, we need somebody who’s actually going to be here to do your job.’ I worked in a school in alumni relations and development, so it was fine to be gone during the summer since it’s a really slow time, but once September hit, we have a lot of functions and a lot of things to do, and that’s when I would be leaving, so I kind of lost that job. So it was lucky once all the filming and stuff ended and I was at the point in my contract when I could start doing stuff, I was lucky that I had some offers to do some of the brand deals. I’ve been really lucky.
Have you been able to meet all the important friends and family members in each other’s lives?
Chapple: We’re both very social, so we have a lot of people in our lives. About three or four weeks ago we went to New Jersey with some of Joan’s friends, and there was three couples. We had a great time. I’ve gotten to know Joan’s mother, her mother-in law, her family, her kids, her brother, that group. We’ve done a pretty good job with that, but we both know so many people. I’ll speak for myself, it’s been kind of nice to just slow down. After the show there were so many people like, ‘Come have dinner with me, tell me what’s going on.’ I think it was last week or the week before, we talked and we go, ‘We just want to stay in.’ It’s kind of nice to just relax and Joan’s got a couple of TV shows she likes to watch.
Ooh, what’s on your binge-watching list these days?
Vassos: We just watched a really good – it’s called Matlock? It was so fun. We watched Matlock. That was our most recent one. We’ll binge-watch every once in a while. Because we go, go, go, go, go, and then when we’re just at each other’s homes where we don’t have to be going, we’re not out in L.A. or New York doing stuff, it’s nice to just live like a normal couple would live. Which would not be going out every night, it’d be staying in, ordering carryout and watching a movie or whatever. So we do like to do that every once in a while. Just slow down and not do anything.
What is a day-to-day like when you’re just visiting each other’s hometowns?
Chapple: Joan’s a coffee person in the morning. We’ll have a cup of coffee, I’ll either snack there or I’ll go to the gym. We both kind of like to shop a little bit, so we’ll do a little of that. Next time I go I want to play golf with her boys. I did play golf with her guy friends the other day. We stay busy. Usually in the evenings with Joan, it’s all about family. But back here in Wichita, with my kids not living here, we’ll go usually have dinner with friends of mine and go do that. We haven’t really cooked that much at my house because we’ve got so many people pulling at us.
Vassos: Which is fine. I like going out at night. If we’re running around all day, to go sit, have a glass of wine, and go meet some of his friends, I like doing that. Last time he was here I took him to Washington D.C. because he hadn’t been there in years. He actually has a brother that lives here near D.C. in Arlington, Virginia, which is right on the D.C./Maryland border, so he sees his brother sometimes when he’s here. We had a great time doing sightseeing in D.C. He still has a lot to see here, like we have wineries here, I have a lot of places I still need to show him.
What would you each say is your favorite thing you’ve learned about each other since coming off the show?
Vassos: I love that Chock is, like, a fixer. Any problem I have, I don’t have to own it myself. That’s part of what I miss when I was a couple before John passed away. Everything that you deal with, good and bad, you have a partner doing that. Chock kind of went into that role so seamlessly and easily. It was just, like, in his nature to be a problem solver and that just makes me feel comfortable in life a little bit.
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Chapple: It’s a lot of things. She’s very caring. This is kind of funny, especially as you get a little older in life, but where I’m from, the guys cook. They usually cook the meals and do this. And I’ve gotten into it recently. Joan made a comment, she goes, ‘I had four kids. I’m kind of over it.’ Joan’s doing these great recipes, so it’s kind of fun to watch her cook and have this talent, but I don’t blame her. Cooking is a lot of work. And every Sunday, Joan will have, usually at her house, she’ll have her entire family over and it’s a lot of work, but she gets a lot of help. But I love that family atmosphere. When I was married, both my parents had moved other places. I didn’t have that family unit like a lot of people do, so Joan really thrives in that, and it’s just a different way of living. It’s just something that’s unique to me. I really like it.
What are you guys looking forward to right now?
Chock: Joan has a trip to Europe soon with Nancy [Hulkower] from the show, which I think is really cool.
Vassos: Chock is going on a safari with his son. So we have some together vacations, we’re doing that beach time with our families, and then the whole family thing in Disney World, which was our gift from the show. They gave us a whole family gift, which was really nice. And then we both have a separate vacation, which is also fun. That’s kind of what’s great about being a little bit of an older couple, you don’t always have to worry about taking your kids on vacation or worry about blending the families. We can do things with each of our families, we can do things together. You don’t feel obligated to have to bring all these kids along. So we’ve had several vacations just the two of us since we’ve been off the show. We’ve spent a lot of good quality time just the two of us.
Chapple: The show gave us the Disney World trip, that was the engagement present, and it’s 15 people for five days.
Vassos: Total chaos.
