'The Golden Bachelorette' Is Facing a Major Hurdle That Single Parents Know All Too Well

In April, The Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist called off their marriage merely three months after their televised wedding. The reason for their split, they revealed in a joint interview on Good Morning America , was distance and an unwillingness to relocate.

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Now that The Golden Bachelorette ‘s first ever lead, Joan Vassos, is attempting to restore our faith in the show’s message that love is possible at any age, she already has a major hurdle in front of her — one that tripped up Turner and Nist, and one that single parents recognize — love might be possible at any age but uprooting your life isn’t.

Turner and Nist, whose love story played out on the first-ever season of The Bachelor franchise’s parlay into the over 60s dating world, were frank about the reason behind their split.

“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation and so forth, and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to dissolve our marriage,” Turner said while announcing their divorce on GMA.

Nist admitted that they considered meeting in the middle and viewed properties at halfway points between his life in Indiana and hers in New Jersey but nothing stuck. “We looked at home after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,” she said.

What they didn’t explicitly say, but definitely implied, was that as two people in their early 70s with children and grandchildren, rearranging life around a new relationship is not straightforward.

In The Golden Bachelorette , 61-year-old Vassos faces a similar dilemma. In the Sept. 18 premiere of her season, Vassos and many heartwarming moments as she met the men vying for her love. They shared stories of grief, parenthood, deployment and more, giving viewers just a small taste of what we fell in love with in Turner’s season: the rich lives of the older contestants.

Yet a hard-to-overlook fact looms over Vassos’ season as she continues to grow closer to the men who exited the limos. No one is from Vassos’ home-state of Maryland, let alone within the vicinity of Rockville where her life as a school administrator and mom-of-four remains.

“Those in their 60s have the baggage of a life lived,” Dr. Kathryn Smerling , Ph.D., LCSW, a family therapist and author of the upcoming book Learning to Play Again: Rediscovering Our Early Selves to Become Better Adults tells SheKnows .

“They may have been married previously and have children or grandchildren to think about, and they have their own support system – they don’t come by themselves. Along with the life experience obtained comes death, hardships, the scars of life, and you’re taking that with you as you begin dating when you’re in your 60s.”

With The Golden Bachelor and The Golden Bachelorette , the ABC dating franchise has met its match — parenthood.

Vassos already proved her commitment to her family when she exited The Golden Bachelor early, cutting her connection with Turner short, to go be with her daughter who was having a difficult postpartum experience after giving birth shortly before Vassos started filming the show.

“My family will always be first. Once you become a mom, you’re always a mom, even when your kids are older,” she said at the time.

“Motherhood doesn’t end when your child reaches adulthood, and this show depicts how moms still struggle to balance their kids’ needs with their own,” Zara Hanawalt wrote for Parents in a heartfelt essay responding to Vassos and another contestant leaving The Golden Bachelor due to their family’s needs.

Any parent who has navigated the dating world could see Vassos’ upcoming predicament a mile away. But it seems like the show’s creators, who until fall 2023 had predominately dealt with contestants in their 20s and 30s without kids ( aside from a few outliers ,) could not.

“It’s not like when you’re in your 20s, you meet someone, and you’re ready to embark on a lifelong adventure – it’s more complicated,” Dr. Smerling adds. “Romance is one thing, but a relationship is something quite different and much more complex.”

That said, Vassos’ fan-loved appearance on The Golden Bachelor has already proved that one thing viewers love more than a happily-ever-after is a heartwarming story and, perhaps, Vassos’ love for her family is the most important story The Golden Bachelorette could tell.

Before you go, click here to see all of the ‘Bachelor’ & ‘Bachelorette’ couples who are still together: