Golden Bachelorette Joan was afraid to break | TV Shows

First-ever Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos made a massive change to her Fantasy Suites dates to make her feel more comfortable, but it was still daunting.

Weeks before her Fantasy Suites visits in Tahiti, the 61-year-old revealed she was eliminating the sex from her overnights with her suitors, who ended up being Pascal Ingui, Guy Gansert and Chock Chapple.

During her first date with Guy, Joan explained to him: “I want to have the time off camera so we can talk and discuss intimate things, but when it comes to the physical part of that, I’m not going to do that with three different people — so I’m not going to do it with anybody right now. I’m going to save that for when I have my final person.”

Guy completely respected her decision, saying: “So far, you’re thinking the way I’m thinking. What’s more important to me right now is the emotional intimacy.”

Joan then handed Guy the Fantasy Suite card with a little different wording.

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Instead of: “Should you choose to forego your individual rooms and spend the night as couple in the Fantasy Suite” the note read: “Should you choose to spend additional private time together this evening, please use this key to access one of the over-water bungalows.”

Later, during her date with Chock, Joan once again explained that they wouldn’t be exploring physical intimacy, but he was all for it too, saying: “Joan, I’m perfectly okay with that.”

Joan never got to have additional private time with Pascal because he self-eliminated, but he likely would’ve respected Joan’s decision too.

The leading lady revealed the change to her Fantasy Suites dates during an interview on The View in September.

“I said, ‘I want to do Fantasy Suites, but I don’t want to have a bed in there. And I’m taking that off the table,’” she recalled, adding that her contestants were “actually very respectful” about her decision.

“I’m not judging anybody else, the way they did it,” she clarified. “Just for me, that was the right way to do it.”

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However, a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, she confessed that vocalizing her boundary during filming gave her “a lot of angst” as she feared it “wasn’t going to be popular” with producers and fans.

“It was probably three weeks into the season, and I was up late with my producer and we were taking a walk,” she recalled.

“I thought, ‘Okay, this is a good time to tell him.’ I said, ‘I need to talk to you about something.’”

Joan continued: “I told him that I didn’t feel comfortable having that physical relationship with more than one person, so I really want to do Fantasy Suites a different way, and I’m hoping they’ll allow that.”

The Golden Bachelorette said she assumed producers “weren’t going to budge” and might “shut the whole thing down.”

However, she was pleasantly surprised that they “had no problem with it,” adding: “They respected that that’s how it needed to be for me. They were great about it.”

Joan also revealed that, despite getting rid of the beds, her Fantasy Suite dates went until “two or three o’clock in the morning” with the remaining contestants.

Fans were very much supportive of Joan and her Fantasy Suites change-up.

One fan posted to X (formerly Twitter): “Wow… so refreshing to see couples truly spending time getting to know each other without all the sexual tension.”

“If more people IRL and on The Bachelor franchise and other reality shows waited for the right person and worked on emotional intimacy they will have a better connection and chance of surviving as a couple #TheGoldenBachelorette,” another shared.

A third fan wrote: “Joan outright pronouncing there will be no funny business on these overnights is the energy I like to see. Tell ‘em your boundaries girl.”

Another fan praised her ability to set boundaries, saying: “Joan is a boundary setting queen!”