Joan Vassos had strict restrictions when it came to going out solo on The Golden Bachelor: No sex.
“That’s just the way I am,” Vassos said Bachelor alum Kaitlyn Bristowe on the Tuesday, October 29 episode of her podcast Off the Vine.
“I don’t judge anyone else for that. What’s good for them is good. But it didn’t feel good to me,” Vassos, 61, explained her decision – a definitive departure for the sultry Bachelor franchise.
Former The Golden Bachelor The star shared that she decided “I’m not going to have a physical element to it,” but added, “I definitely saw the need to hang out with people off camera.”
How she handled it, she told Bristowe, was: “I just said, ‘I don’t want beds in the room.’ And I told people we don’t do the physical part of it I’m sorry.”
Joan Vassos had a “no bed” rule on “The Golden Bachelor.”
Disney/Gilles Mingasson
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“No bed in the room?” Bristowe asked.
“Not. There is no bed.”
“So you’re just going to sleep on the couch?”
“We’re leaving before bed,” Vassos explained, saying they’d just sit on the couch and talk instead.
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“I respect that,” Bristowe said.
Vassos explained that “it’s also maybe a little awkward to wake up in the morning with someone who, like, you haven’t spent that much time with.”
“Sleeping in bed with them. It was all a bit embarrassing for me. Also, I like the idea that if I end up choosing someone, he won’t have to think I’ve slept with other guys.”
(left:) Kaitlyn Bristowe; (right:) Joan Vassos.
Jason Davis/WireImage; Disney/Stephanie Augello
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Another factor, Vassos said, was her children’s reaction to the idea of the fantasy suites, the setting for the couple’s first night alone and a longtime Bachelor franchise tradition.
“My kids were terrified at the thought of doing a fantasy suite,” Vassos said of her four children, Allison, Nicholas, Erica and Luke, whom she welcomed with her late husband John Vassos.
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“They even think the name is disgusting. They say, ‘That’s just disgusting,'” Vassos explained. “They say, ‘Oh my God. That’s so gross to even think about it with you. . . . Then we all put some thoughts in the viewers’ heads about what that looks like.’
“So not only do I respect them, but I didn’t feel comfortable being physical with more than one person.”
The Golden Bachelor airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
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