Spoilers for The Golden Bachelorette finale ahead. The first-ever season of ABC's The Golden Bachelorette has ended, wrapping up Joan Vassos's heartwarming search for a second chance at true love. (Or at least, more heartwarming and less messy than the more notorious seasons of The Bachelor franchise.) Arriving just a few weeks after the dramatic conclusion of season 21 of The Bachelorette, The Golden Bachelorette followed Joan, a 61-year-old school administrator from Maryland who first made waves as a contestant on The Golden Bachelor. Once it was her turn to lead the reality TV show, Joan took the task of dating 24 men very seriously, hoping to find love again after experiencing the loss of her late husband of 32 years.
After nine weeks of respectful, adorable dating, Joan eventually narrowed down her suitors to two charming seniors: Chock Chapple and Guy Gansert. (Yes, those are their legal names.) Ultimately, Joan went with her heart and chose Chock, a 61-year-old insurance executive from Kansas, as her winner and fiancé. So where are Joan and Chock now, and will their relationship outlast Golden Bachelor alum Gerry and Teresa's three-month marriage? Read on for a breakdown of The Golden Bachelorette finale.
What happened between Joan and Chock on 'The Golden Bachelorette?'
By the Golden Bachelorette finale, both Chock and Guy, a 66-year-old emergency room doctor in Reno, Nevada, are head-over-heels in love with Joan. Chock proved his commitment to the process earlier in the season when he left The Golden Bachelorette midseason following his mother’s death and still came back. However, fans and other cast members claimed that Chock seemed a bit possessive of Joan, with third-place contestant Pascal Ibgui calling Chock a "stalker" in a post-elimination interview with Glamour.
Meanwhile, Guy remained mostly under the radar due to his lack of screen time in the first season, before he showed that he was all-in and dropped the big "falling for you" bomb during the pair's hometown date. There has been fan speculation throughout the season that Guy's scenes may have been reduced due to his controversial past; in mid-October, USA Today reported that Guy's ex-wife filed for a temporary restraining order in October 2021, claiming that he physically threatened her.
When it came to the final days in Bora Bora, Joan made a quick and no-nonsense decision. Chock is the first of the two men to meet Joan's kids, and after he gets their approval, Chock sits Joan down and tells her he wants to marry her and get a place in N.Y.C. with her. The next day, while Guy gets ready to meet her kids, Joan reveals that she woke up that morning and realized she was in love with Chock. Rather than making Guy go through the motions, she visits him in his room and breaks things off, freeing Guy from the embarrassment of being turned down mid-proposal. When they talk at the live finale, Joan tells Guy that it came down to timing and that she also had strong feelings for him.
And with that, Chock heads into his beachside proposal uncontested. Before he gets down on one knee (on a noticeably windy day), Joan tells him that she could picture a future with him early on, adding, "We are living proof that no matter what life throws at you, that there is still hope, even at our age. I waited till this moment in this amazing location to tell you that I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up next to you in the morning, and I want to kiss you when I go to bed at night." With that, he proposed, she said yes, and he got the Golden Final Rose.
Are Joan and Chock still together after 'The Golden Bachelorette?'
On the live Golden Bachelorette finale, Joan and Chock confirmed they are still going strong. Though they didn't elaborate on their long-term plans in the special (beyond a likely-sponsored mention of a family trip to Disney World), the pair revealed to Us Weekly that they're going to celebrate their engagement with a huge bash in L.A., which Chock described as "a coming-out party as a couple." The pair will then move to New York, while also spending time in their hometowns in Maryland and Kansas.
"This first year, obviously, we have to kind of figure out life," Joan told the outlet. "We know that we’re gonna spend time in Maryland and in Kansas, but then we have this really fun plan because both of us have always dreamed—and we’re finally at this weird stage in life for making this dream come true—that we live in a big city, and, specifically, we’ve always wanted to live in New York. So Chock surprised me and said, ‘I want us to go find a place.'"
Joan continued, "We both love the energy in the city and love that there’s always something to do. We just wanna go out and walk and experience life—go to fun restaurants and [experience the] culture. We both have friends there. We’re gonna be there during the holidays, which is the best time ever in New York City. I think it’s just a really different life than either one of us have ever lived."
