Watch: Golden Bachelorette’s Joan Vassos, Chock Chapple Break Up Nearly 2 Years After Getting Engaged
Joan Vassos is reflecting on the moment her relationship with Chock Chapple withered.
Days the Golden Bachelorette star and her now ex-fiancé—whom she met on the show’s inaugural season—announced they had broken up, Vassos shared why their romance ultimately didn’t work.
“When Chock got down on one knee, I was like, ‘I think I can do this. I’m ready to make this leap of faith. I actually have enough faith in this relationship to think that it might really succeed, that we might really get married,’” Vassos told People in an interview published Nov. 13, adding she told herself, “If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
Fast-forward two years later and as Vassos shared, the couple “figured out that we weren’t each other’s person, and that’s okay.”
“I grew immensely in that time,” she noted. “I figured out what I need from a relationship. I figured out that I can actually fall in love with somebody again. It wasn’t like any part of this relationship was ever miserable. It’s just we weren’t each other’s people. I’m grateful for the whole thing, even though the ending wasn’t what I wanted.”
And while she and Chapple endured “a lot” over the course of their engagement—including him experiencing a cancer scare—and fared “really well,” their journey together naturally came to an end.
However, Vassos, 63, admitted she still feels “guilty” about the end of her relationship with Chapple, also 63.
Instagram / Joan Vassos
“I feel like I let a lot of people down,” she explained. “Right when we first got engaged and came off the show, I got so many messages from people saying, ‘You’ve given me hope that there’s a second chapter in my life. I’m going to get back on a dating site, I’m going to make an effort to meet somebody.’ That’s exactly what I wanted, and I hope that these people keep going in that right direction and that I didn’t shatter their hopes.”
That said, Vassos knows she and her ex rose to the occasion as they saw fit.
“If it’s not right, it’s not fair for either one of us to stay in a relationship that we don’t think is going to last,” she noted. “I’m still hopeful, and I don’t feel like just because this relationship didn’t last that I don’t have a relationship in my future.”
The former couple announced the end of their engagement on Nov. 6, each sharing insight into their decision on their respective social media accounts.
“We spent the last two years living what we hoped would be the beginning of our love story,” they wrote on Instagram, “sharing our families, amazing adventures, laughter and supporting each other through challenging times.”
But, as they noted, “Sadly, our journey hasn’t turned out the way we had hoped and we have decided to end our engagement.”
“We truly want each other to be happy,” Vassos concluded her post at the time, “and I’m grateful for the chapter we shared.”
For a deeper look at other Bachelor Nation couples who ended on a thornier note, keep reading…
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ABC/Craig Sjodin
ABC/Craig Sjodin
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(ABC/Craig Sjodin)
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