Joan Vassos was sent dick pics after “The Golden Bachelor”
No wonder she stopped dating IRL and signed up for "The Golden Bachelorette."
Joan Vassos learned a lot of things from her time on The Golden Bachelor, including this very grim lesson: Men are never too old to send dirty pictures to a stranger.
The 61-year-old private school administrator shared a strong connection with Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner, but she had to leave the show early when her daughter, a new mother, began struggling with postpartum depression. Joan tells Entertainment Weekly that after her episodes of the Golden Bachelor aired last year, she was "inundated" with DMs from hopeful suitors.
James Clark/ABC
'Golden Bachelorette' star Joan Vassos in January 2024Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
"I had a hard time navigating that process because they're total strangers," says Joan, who will begin handing out roses as star of The Golden Bachelorette next month. "I live in Maryland. Most of those people lived in all different states. I didn't really respond to those much. Or I would have cute little conversations and say, 'Thank you, you're so flattering,' or whatever. But none of them seemed to be anything that would really work out or that I felt particularly comfortable with. And then some of the DMs were weird."
And when she says "weird," rose lovers, what Joan really means is "horrifying."
“I got dick pics,” she reveals. “And I got people with foot fetishes. They wanted me to send them pictures of my feet and would pay me for it. One person offered to buy all the shoes that I wore on Golden Bachelor. It was scary. My kids were like, ‘Give me your phone, mom. We’re blocking all this.’”
Related: Meet the 24 men who will date Joan Vassos on The Golden Bachelorette
Regrettably, Joan isn't the only Golden Bachelor contestant who found filth in her DMs after the show aired. "The creepiest one was an old yucky man," April Kirkwood, 66, told EW in January. "And then right after, his wife [messaged me] and said, 'Would you like to do a threesome?' I was shocked. They wanted to go in together with me."
Leslie Fhima, 65, recalled hearing from a man who "wanted to be my sugar daddy, and he itemized everything that he would pay for. I’ve been hit on by way more young men than [men] my age." Nancy Hulkower, 61, also received messages from men who were "a lot younger, and that didn't work for me."
Read EW's full cover story on The Golden Bachelorette.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.