Joan Vassos Responds to HGTV Drama, Plus: Jonathon Johnson Dishes on His New Relationship | Golden Hour

00:00:07
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Golden Hour, guys. I am Jonathan and I'm Joan.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: We're filling in this week for Kathy and Susan.

00:00:14
Speaker 1: Unfortunately they couldn't be here, but that just gives us a chance to yap a little bit.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: You know what, we haven't talked in a long time. I think we need to catch up on each other's lives.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, first things first, I haven't talked to you since you did your HGTV show.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: Oh true, Yeah, yeah, yeah right.

00:00:30
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start it off. I get a few questions about it because I'm actually a little curious.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: I have a lot to say, so perfect.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's jump into it. Obviously, and this is a more like broad spectrum question, but the audience knows obviously you were the Golden Bachelorette and then really the first time we've seen you in another show since, so I guess more or less what shocked you more actually getting to see the mansion for the first time when you were the Bacheorette, or absolutely tearing it apart on this AGTV show.

00:01:07
Speaker 2: Ah, that's like a really good question. I think I think seeing it the first time, so like it's just this iconic home that has been on TV and everybody kind of knows it. I'm always feeling like I equated to like the Brady Bunch house that everybody kind of from our generation knows that house. Even if you're not even a huge Bachelor fan, you kind of know that house. So I think the first time walking up to it when I was a bachelorette, standing in that driveway where I've seen a million cars, those limos come up with the like the new contestants, was like probably one of the most like rememberable moments of my life, to be honest with you. So I think the first time being in front of that mansion for the first time is like pretty iconic for me.

00:01:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also so nerve wracking. People don't see the behind the scenes, but there's like eight cameras. There's like three on like cranes up here and then like five down below from every angle you can think of, and it's your first time TV and you're like, uh.

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Speaker 2: It's terrifying.

00:02:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And there's like and there's like thirty people in direct your shares all lining that back half of the driveway, and then there's people that like running the show, like are pointing at Limos and you know, directing people. It's it's chaos. It's it looks like such an intimate moment when you're in it, but the behind the scenes, what you're not seeing is total chaos.

00:02:24
Speaker 1: It's insane. I love the moments of getting to pull back the curtain a little bit. It's cool. Oh wait, speaking of pulling back the kurts in wait, I think, Joan, I know you're not this this person, but I need you to I need you to talk a little a little smack for me because I am curious and I'm sure the people are Homer curious. Okay, throughout your time on the show, who had the worst taste on the honest?

00:02:48
Speaker 2: Never going to answer that the worst taste okay.

00:02:55
Speaker 1: A questionable moment that maybe you just didn't agree with.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to really show your taste and show your ability to be a good designer in this situation. There are so many restrictions and so many things that you can't do that you would want to do. So a really good example was when we were doing the mixer room. It was the three guys against the three women. That's what was. There were six us left and it ended up randomly being guys against girls again, and that was the second time that had happened. So the guys they did a coin flip, I think, and the guys got to choose all of their stuff first, and they get forty five minutes. They choose all their stuff, and then we come in to choose our stuff. We have forty five minutes. They show us what the guys have already chosen, and some of the stuff is no longer available because they've chosen it. The marble that Noah chose to go above his credenza is the marble that I wanted to use on the back of my I had the big built in, the huge built in. That's a marble I want to use. That would have been perfect back there. The dark wood with the light background would have been really really good, but it was no longer available. They only had one huge lab, so there wasn't another slab available. I couldn't use it. So the design decisions are very like, they're very tempered. You can't design any way you want. You have to work within these you know these parameters, and they're pretty restrictive, to be honest. You only have certain things that they have in stock. You can't just choose anything that you would love to have to design with because it has to be already on site or at least in the warehouse that they had for us. So they being I don't ever want to call say somebody is a worse designer than another person, because I don't think that we really saw people's true design abilities. And I'm being honest, that's as good as I can do. I'm sorry, I'm not giving a.

00:04:48
Speaker 1: No, You're good. Okay. On the flip of that, do you think anybody had some choice opinions about yours? And was it ever known?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I so I came on the show thinking like this was all about design, and I have a design degree, so does Alicia. So the two of us had with the two that had design degrees, lots of people have great taste, so you know, having a design degree just kind of gives you like a little bit of a backing and maybe a little bit of you know, you know, practical knowledge, but when it comes to taste, like a lot of people have really good taste and can design without a designer. So I feel like a lot of this competition was about the alliances, and I was very surprised about that. I came on the show thinking once again that it was about design, and all of a sudden, I felt like I was in like a HGTV show combined with a Bachelor show combined with like Survivor, and I hated that. I did not like that at all. I'm good with, you know, HGTV. I'm good with Bacher. That whole Survivor element was just not me. I don't like drama. I don't like I didn't want to form alliances. So I feel like people, a few in particular, and I don't want to say names, felt like they needed to break people down to make them look better. Because this was about one hundred thousand dollars and there were people that that would make a big difference in their life. I said from the very beginning, I wasn't there for the money. I'm sixty three years old, I am set up in life financially. I'm okay, I don't need one hundred thousand dollars. I knew there were some people there that really wanted it. You know, we had sometimes conversations off camera, even you know, people tell me about their lives. I know that that that was an important amount of money for other people. I even said to one person, if it came down to she and I, I would self eliminate so she would get the money because it didn't really matter to me. So I feel like there were people that would criticize other people or would you know, make create drama because they were trying to play the game. They were playing the survivor part of the game, and I'm not good at that survivor part of the game.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can see it. I mean, you you, you all probably know what I'm talking about because it was pretty obvious, like who did not like me? There was somebody who did not like me, which is really weird in my world. I I don't usually offend people, and so I don't know where that came from. In fact, I didn't know she didn't like me until I watched the show. I thought we were completely fine. I had zero idea of all the stuff that was going on in the background and that she didn't like me.

00:07:29
Speaker 1: But I'll be honest, I have no idea who it is.

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Speaker 2: Did you watch it, Jonavan?

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Speaker 1: I haven't gotten to see it all yet.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you you'll know, you'll know. You love me, she didn't. Okay, it's all right, it's all right. I love her. I wish her only the best.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: I love that. And I know you, and I know you're just a sweet person. So I don't think somebody disliking you is not going to change your opinion on how to treat and care for other people.

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Speaker 2: So absolutely not.

00:08:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have expected other anything else from you. So thank you, Thank you for And then more like, I guess on the side that you wanted to worry about, not as much of the drama side, as far as like your own personal like design, taste, and style, like well, if you had to put it into three words, what would you say your style is when it comes to design.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, three words in design, that's like almost impossible. Okay, let me think I would describe my style as curated, Okay, elegant, and like comfortable, livable. I'd say livable. I like every room to have like its own standout moment, So have one thing that is really eye catching and then have everything around it kind of be like in a support role, but in a livable way. You have to be able to live in the room.

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Speaker 1: Okay, what would be like at home? Like, I guess trend is the word, but theme is more what I think is what I'm looking for here, Like what is a home theme? Like all encompass and you said every room needs to have its own character, But like if it was to just sit there and bounce off of a singular theme, what would that be a theme?

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Speaker 2: So you're thinking like colonial whatever, like one of those themes.

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Speaker 1: I really don't.

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Speaker 2: That's one of the things like I don't like about some design styles is that they're all about a theme. I don't like a themed room at all. In fact, I want I like intentional kind of statement pieces. I hate MATCHI MATCHI I hate a theme. I just feel I want the room to look kind of curated, like every piece in the room has a reason for being there and it has a story.

00:09:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I love that. Okay, So no themes. You followed that pretty well on the show.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Again, I tried, like I said, there, you know, there were hard things were hard to do because of what was available, Like we had one the kind of interesting dynamic that I didn't know was happening. I figured it I saw it when I saw it on TV. But Courtney and I had a conversation one time about the lighting out by the you know, the lower part of the pool. So we designed a space that had never been designed before, basically, and we made ours was like a kind of like a spa feeling an oasis, and it was on that bottom part of like beyond the pool, and we got like great things. We got a sauna, we had an out shower, we had a like a big workout exercise space, and then we had this open area and we were talking about lighting in that open area and Courtney said, you know, let's do market lighting. And I was like, you know, I think I would rather And this was just the two of us talking. I said, I would love to do like twinkle lights in all the trees, because they have this whole row of trees that spans the whole width of like the pool area. And I said, twinkle lights in the trees would look really pretty because you could see it from the upper deck of the pool at night. It would just give this beautiful twinkling and looking light. And she said, oh, Noah said that he knows how to do that, and I said, I think we Our only big limitation is probably electrical if we have enough electrical down there to run all those lights. So the next day, we come to the mansion and I walk over we always had. We always met in like the meeting room, and we'd have a couple of coffee and we kind of, you know, get the day started. They'd make us up do all the stuff that they needed to do before we actually started working. And I go and look out the door out at the kind of the pool, and I see market lights strung all along our back area. And then Alicia comes and stands next to me, and she's like, what the hell is that? And I was like, I don't know where they came from. And then I figured I knew where they came from. But I said, I'm not saying anything. What's done is done. And then I watched the show and they have a clip of Courtney talking to in her like a in the moment, like an IM in the interview room, and she's saying, yeah, I went behind their back and I had them do the market lights because that's what I wanted. So I was like, okay, I mean they ended up looking fine. I liked them. I think Twinkle Lights would have been way prettier in all the trees, but you know, there are just things that are possible. Maybe it wasn't possible. But in the interview she literally said, I just went behind everybody's back. She just hope they uh like, kind of like, I don't care what they wanted. This is I'm doing what I just wanted to do.

00:12:22
Speaker 1: So wow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a surprise. But by the way the judges loved them, I think they would have loved Twinkle Lights even more. But it worked out fine. We won that challenge, so I am not complaining. I didn't complain at the time, but I just like things unfolded in a weird way that I didn't. You don't know what's happening.

00:12:40
Speaker 1: To a better communication. It was a team effort and it wasn't a team decision. So okay, that makes sense. I do have another another question for you. Was there anybody I guess that may have stayed longer than you thought that they were going to, like somebody that surprised you, hmm.

00:13:04
Speaker 2: That lasted longer than what I thought they should have.

00:13:09
Speaker 1: Maybe not even should have, but just that you just were like, oh, WHOA, I didn't expect for you to take it.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: To suld still be standing here. You know, we all had our own different skill set. So a lot of the guys had you know, were really handy, so they could build things and like you needed them. And then there were people that had really good design tastes and so you know, they you know, we needed them. I mean we would have conversations like I know that Noah and Dean told us after the show that they were after Alicia and I the whole time because they thought that we could beat them. And I remember thinking, in my mind, they're really good builders. I need to get rid of them if I have to vote somebody off, because they're really good at what they do. Along with Sam, Sam was probably the most skilled builder other than Christopher. But I knew when it was coming down and we were down to Noah and Dean and Sam, like if it came down to us voting somebody off that crew, like I knew it needed to happen. I knew that somebody one of them needed to go soon. I probably would have voted Sam off because he would at that point was the most skilled and you know, you need to keep skilled people around until you get to a certain point in the competition, and then you need to get rid of them because if you want to win, like, that's the way the game is played. So I think that Alicia and I got booted, you know, probably at the right time because we were a threat, and I think I would have probably booted some of the good the good craftsman.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so not a singular person though, I can't say a singular person.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I think of the building of the builder, Sam was the best. I think he was really really talented, but he was so easy to get along with and so easy to work with. I probably would have kept him and maybe gotten rid of honestly, you know, I don't know. Noah Ordine, Yeah, yeah, probably, I don't know. I don't know. It's hard to say. I mean, then there were also people that were.

00:15:00
Speaker 1: Over now, so it's not even like it's like it's gonna happen.

00:15:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Also there were people that were easier and harder to work with. Like I said, I I thought, you know, some of the personalities I found out later, you know, there were people that didn't like me. I think some people were easy to work with and some people were harder to work with. I never got to work with Dean. I was never on a team with Dean, and I think he'd be really easy and like enjoyable to have around. He's just a you know, funny, quirky kind of guy. So I would have liked to keep him. Maybe maybe he he would have stayed longer. I don't know. It's hard to decide, you know, it's hard, you know. The decisions on who to get rid of were so weirdly random, like they were challenges that had nothing to do with with decor or with design. The whole thing was a little mind blowing how it came down to the last two people it came down to. I. I think it was.

00:15:47
Speaker 1: The weird who should go home.

00:15:51
Speaker 2: Well in the beginning, so like the first couple of days we were there, the second day we were there, they randomly came They had us all, all twelve of us sitting in a room and producer came in and said, okay, each team that was at that point men against women. We were doing the master suite and the other the guys had the other two bedrooms. They said, each team has to get rid of one person in thirty minutes. You have thirty minutes to decide, and we were all like, like we have to get rid of somebody. Like we're just really jelling, We're just starting to get to know each other. It was day two of the whole competition. The girls, we had a little bit of a RECKI start up in that in that room, all of us, you know, throwing out ideas. By day two we were actually jelling really good, and they said, oh, you gotta get rid of a person. So getting rid of somebody is really really hard. I never really had to vote, or hardly ever had to vote individually for somebody that I wanted to get rid of. It was that it was that weird challenge, But it never came down to like me winning a challenge and sending somebody like poor Dean had to do the first day and Brendan had to do one time. They had to literally pick somebody. They had like point them out in front of everybody, saying you're going home. That would have been really hard.

00:16:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not being chosen is crazy.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be bad.

00:17:03
Speaker 1: I would hate to do that middle school trauma for like half the crew.

00:17:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, like oh seriously, And like they both got in that position by winning a challenge. So Dean had the golden hammer and Brendan had the golden screwdriver, and boy they got screwed with it. I mean they had to then choose somebody that they had just worked with to send home. Yeah, bad, no, thanks, Better challenges, yeah, better not to win the challenges.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Just it's better on the win, but also just not to lose.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. You you kind of needed to like hang out in the middle, like that was the best place to be. If you want a challenge, great, you get to go out and drink champagne by the pool while the other team has to eliminate somebody. So winning is the best. But saying kind of neutral and flying under the radar is I think a little bit like the way to play the game. And I think that's when a lot of competition shows. You just need to like be seen, just stay low, hanglo. That's going to be my Well, that's what I'm going to do if they ever asked me to be on Traders, I'm going to remain neutral.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: Yes, Also, Joan kind of piggybacking off of that. Kathy and Susan spoke with Noah last week from your season on h G t V and he had some choice words that we would like to share with you if we could roll back the clip here.

00:18:24
Speaker 3: I don't think anyone was bad in their own right. It was just predictable style from all the designers of the house, you know, the ones that were smearing it in our face that they're the best designers and we're idiots.

00:18:33
Speaker 1: And people were stuck to.

00:18:36
Speaker 3: Like what they knew, I think, and that's you can't really hold it against them, but you can't put an arch in every every spot.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: Who wanted to put arches in every spot?

00:18:45
Speaker 1: Talk to us about the gold arches. If we're lets we're getting hamburgers here, I want to know what really happened. It's Joan. You know, it's Joan. It's our gold It's Joan of Arc.

00:18:57
Speaker 2: That's hilarious. I certainly every but all that's funny.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to need a comment on that. Who's to the golden arch comments.

00:19:05
Speaker 2: I want to like tear Noah down and say like he was terrible, but I actually love Noah and he just loves being funny. So in fact, that was just stick the entire show. If you watched him like he was taking Dean down, and then we'd go back to the hotel and the two and been sitting at the bar drinking all night together. So I know that he just likes to be funny. I never proposed any golden arches anywhere. We are not McDonald's. In fact, I feel like there are a lot of arches at the at the uh mansion already. And the only the only time I actually worked with Noah was on that lower level beyond the pool. There was no golden arch ever mentioned how funny the golden arches. It's hilarious. He's funny. He's a funny guy. I was over the arches too, he knows that. But yeah, I love Noah. He's good and I'm.

00:19:51
Speaker 1: So he was just shooting the ship funny.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: Hold it against him. I love the guy. I think he deserved to win. I am happy for him. I know he had a lot of stuff going on at home that also kind of played on my heart and made me want him to win. So I congratulations. So Noah and I did not want any golden arches.

00:20:11
Speaker 1: That is awesome. Yeah, I really have to like watch this all the way through now. I also just like I love watching my friends on TV. Like it's cool. It's like it's super fun to watch that back and support your people, So.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: I like, and that kind of leads me into like talking a little bit about yours. You're trying to spill some tea because I've been watching you for now a few years, attempting to fall in love and find your person, and I am seeing on Instagram that it looks like that happened, So we need to catch up. You mentioned on that you guys were on a recent vacation together, but we need to know about this relationship, like, walk me through it, start me from the beginning. Please tell us.

00:20:53
Speaker 1: About it from the beginning, Joan. Well, oh man, okay, at the beginning.

00:20:58
Speaker 2: How about that? How long has this been going on?

00:21:01
Speaker 1: Okay, So we have the same manager, and I know all the details now now that we just got back from vacation. I have all the tea on this because we looked it up to like last week. We had the same manager. I think it's like a year ago. My manager had mentioned me to her, and my manager was kind of talking shit. She's like, yeah, he's like not that tall, and I'm like, whoa medium of all. Yeah, no, that's the first thing out of everybody's mouth. Because I make such a joke about it because I just don't care like about my height, never have, never will. I'm five eleven, but when most people meet me, I'm in my dress shoots, I'm probably like six foot, like right on the dot or something, so they'll meet me and they'll be like, you're not short at all? What the hell? Yeah? But anyways, just over time, she just kind of like let it just trickle away. And then she saw me at our manager's daughter's first birthday and she's like, wait, he actually is really cute and not that short, Like what the hell? Followed up with her about it again kind of trickled away because I was still waiting on paradise to come out, blah blah blah. And then at that point she intioned to me, she goes, oh, this other girl I managed said that you were cute. Whatever, nothing came of it. And then I think like December rolled around and she had seen like a reel or something and put out and she goes, I'm gonna follow up with this. Follows Me followed her back immediately, and then she like responded to like one of my like training stories with a story about her like getting lost the first time she tried to run a half marathon, and I was like, I got to hear about this, so I immediately asked her. I was like, how do you tell me? Over dinner? Thank you? And then she was gone for two weeks, so she does a lot of travel, like influencing and stuff. Was gone for two weeks, so I had to wait through Christmas and New Year's and then for her to get back and then finally take her out, and then from then on, like it just kind of exploded. Like I was dating up until that point, and then after date one, I was like, no, this is this is the girl I'm putting all of my energy into this basket because she's exactly the kind of person I've been waiting for.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: I'm so curious about that part of it, because I felt like you friend zoned so many girls over the last couple of years, Like what set her apart from those other people, the ones you've continually friend zoned?

00:23:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's funny because everybody like had this like narrative of me of like he doesn't know what he wants, He's this like he's gonna friend zone it. I was like, first of all, all of you are wrong. I'm trying to put the reality back into reality TV and take this serious, Like what am I going to do? Sit here side of these women for the bit, and then once the show's over, I'm like, actually, nah, Like I'm not actually that into you, Like just kidding. I'm going to tell you at the moment if I'm into it or if I like you or I don't like you, and we'll like no. So I just kept it as real as possible. And it's because I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew who I was looking for, and by the time I was gearing up to meet her, like I was just like, you know what, I'm not gonna find it on a show. I'm going to start looking actively outside of this, Like I gave the Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise or Bacheorette Bachelor in Paradise a shot. You know, I was hopeful and fell short. So when I started taking it serious outside of the show world, you just kind of like stumbled in and after that first interaction, like she just I don't know, she's just so confident and fun loving and free spirited. She travels the world, but she's also just like I love an independent, strong, woman, and she is just the epitome that, like she is her own person through and through. I can't We're not going to get into a conversation that I dominate, Like that's just never gonna happen. And I love that. I love that we have that banter and that back and forth of like there's like a balance in power dynamic of we are our own person, we bring our own things to the table. We have such a balance and like who we are and what we're looking for. Yeah, and just like an ambition to be our best, to act our best, to enjoy life at its fullest. And I hadn't met that from anybody that matched or meshed with the way I wanted to do it. And from day one, I think we just she.

00:25:22
Speaker 2: Was the one. You know, I had asked you that one time when right when you came up Paradise, you and I were talking and I said, what is it that these girls aren't like showing you? What is it that you want? And you had said exactly that I want somebody who's really confident, who really knows themselves, who can challenge me. And you're describing that person right now, And I love that you said that she has a manager, So I'm thinking she is she a reality I don't how why did she have a manager? Tell me about her background?

00:25:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so she did. She did three shows in the past. She usually only mentions too, is she did three? So she won Big Brother when she was twenty two. I know. It was like wow, it was like their first online version and she won it like fresh out of college. I think she was like three months out of college, got asked to go on it one and then she did this show called like X on the Beach or something. It was like it was an MTV and then she did the Challenge and then she was on the Challenge for like a short stint and then got off and then really just started getting into social media. So she's been doing social media for like ten years.

00:26:32
Speaker 2: So she's probably had a really good idea about the kind of dater you are, the kind of guy you are. Do you think it's hard to date somebody or to be dated by somebody who has been on reality TV? Like does she look at you in a way that maybe maybe not accurate? Or have you like how did it feel dating somebody that's been on TV and you can kind of watch them?

00:26:54
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think when we first started, both of us really like made it a point like, hey, we're not going to look into you online. Yeah you know what I mean, Like, yeah, I look through her like social media because she can control what she's putting out through her social media and vice versa. But I think she took it a step further. I don't think she really went to in depth on mine. We really just wanted to take it day by day and we understand that like what is always shown isn't exactly who you are, you know what I mean through the tea world or when people want to write a headline like the reality, like people thought I was in love with April from or from Paradise, and it's like if somebody went online to look at going for seventy year old, I don't remember how old she was, but like then they would be like, huh is that No, it's not accurate because people want to write a headline that gets attention. So you did a really good job like putting that to the side and just getting to know each other for face value, not for what anybody else had to say.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, So you didn't really like dive into like her social media, I mean into her reality, and she didn't do that with you, So that's actually probably a really smart way to approach us. But you guys have done the first travel together, the traveling for the first time. I remember, in the few relationships I had before I went on Golden Bachelor, I did travel with someone and that was a really good test and it actually had me not liking the person as much at the end of it. Tell me about your experience.

00:28:25
Speaker 1: We were just trapped on a cruise together for five days, well five nights, six days, and we like both kind of made jokes about it, like, well, we're either going to make it through this phenomenally or we're going to be done. Though, like when this is all said and done, I think both of us need good and well it was just going to drive us closer and I think not thinking. I know, every single day we got like a percentage closer and better, and by the end we literally like, I don't want the cruise to be over. Like neither of us love being stuck on a boat or like our lifestyle. Were very active people and we have a lot of work that we kind of like push to the side to enjoy ourselves. But like by the time we got off the boat, were like genuinely bummed and like we're not going to move intogether. We've been dating for like three months now four months, but like like we can do this every day, and like we weren't tired of each other. We handled everything like just like adults.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Like you had the opposite experience that I had. You like together, you're like, Okay, this is a person I want to be with all the time.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with this girl.

00:29:35
Speaker 2: That makes me so happy. But okay, let's talk about your career then a little bit. You do a lot of content on social media, or you did do a lot of content on social media that had you with being single, like dating and things like that. How does that look for you now that you're in a relationship.

00:29:49
Speaker 1: It must be changing, right, m I mean, I think that was just the narrative of what people see and wanted. Like at that point of the show World, I was this single bachelor dude that nobody had seen in love yet. Yeah, I think they follow me because they like me and they want to see my story and my journey, and at that point that was the most relevant part of what they wanted to know. About me is my single life, and now they still do enjoy me and like me for me, like they want to see me in my love life. I'm sure there's some that were like, fuck, we kind of hoped it was maybe one of us, but like and they're that they're probably like damn, we were really happy for him. And I think the fact that like I found like a good human that's also like a good like girls girl, that they're like, wait, she's actually cool, Like we like her too, I think that helps the case of being like, Okay, well, we want to see like your relationship and how it operates, because we haven't had a lot of fun together and the dynamic is hilary, Like we butt heads in like a very playful way because at the end of day, like we just want each other and we just want to keep moving forward and just have the best experiences from life.

00:31:06
Speaker 2: So I can't wait for you to introduce her to your bachelor mom me because I am't married yet and next time I'm coming to La, I want to I want to meet her. I hope if you're ready to introduce her, I can't wait.

00:31:22
Speaker 1: It's a given.

00:31:24
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, we're good, We're good. Then I'm going to be out there in Oh no, I'm gonna be in northern California. I'll figure it out. I'm coming to see you.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: We'll find it time, we'll figure it out.

00:31:34
Speaker 2: Okay, should we move on to Bachelor Nation news? Okay, she missed it, go for it, Jonathan.

00:31:45
Speaker 1: You missed it, So now that you're caught up on us, let's catch up on some Bachelor Nation news.

00:31:52
Speaker 2: Starting with Oh gosh, this is a big one. Ashley I Connetti gets emotional over marriage struggles with Jared Hayn. I'm so sad, she says, he's not happy. I read this article and oh, I have a lot to say about this. But Jonathan, do you have anything to say about it? Because this is a big one for me. Honestly, I love them as a couple.

00:32:15
Speaker 1: It's tough because I've never met Ashley face to face, but she has always been nothing but supportive, even since I was on the Bachelorette and said nothing but sweet things. Yeah, and I know she's a Bachelor Nation icon and just so well loved. So it's it's hard when you date in the public eye like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. I love the fact that she's open about it because it's it is a very public relationship. But it sucks to see. You never want to see that because well they have kids together, right, two.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: Little boys are so cute?

00:32:46
Speaker 1: Yea.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: You know, so you may know this about Ashley then she is one of the few people that has kind of broken out of the bachelor bubble, and she is on the Real Housewives of Rhode Island. And this came as it was part of a conversation that she had with another one of the housewives from Rhode Island where she made the statement. And I remember her getting announced that she's going to be on the show, and I went like, no, no, no, no, because I feel like relationships with in this weird housewife bubble, like I feel like they struggle so much. I feel like so many of them end up divorce and they have their you know, personal lives broadcast. And I know that Ashley and Jared, you know, kind of grew up and became a couple and became married and have shared their lives on social media and on TV with us, But like these intimate details when you're talking about he's not happy, is exactly the things that the Real Housewives that whole you know world like cones in on and tries to create drama and tries to make it worse than it is, and we'll make that a whole storyline now, and it could ruin their marriage. It makes me so worried about them, and I feel so happy that they shared that that, like every marriage isn't perfect. But I don't want this to be a storyline. And I don't want them to screw with our sweet Ashley and Jared and their sweet little boys, and do not make this a storyline and let them figure this out in private. That's how I feel about it.

00:34:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really, I really hope that it is just for views on the production side, because it's it's never a fun thing to have to go through.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: No, And you know they said that Jared the reason that he wasn't feeling like so happy was that he didn't feel like he was like pulling his weight. So he has this coffee shop that he has been, you know, trying to get up and going for a little while. And you know, we all know that, you know, a new business, like so huge percentage of them fail and you know she got especially in food and beverage, like everybody knows restaurants do like struggle so terribly, and I think that she then had this huge opportunity to be a real housewife and that just kind of puts you into that next tier of TV and of reality. And I feel like that he's just maybe feeling like he's a little left behind. And I can see that happening. And you see that with a lot of these Real Housewives couples, that the men all of a sudden become less significant and it ruins a lot of marriages. I think it has they take a big hit on their egos. You know, I worry about them. I hope that they figure this out. I know they will. I really do believe that they will. I think they're a solid couple.

00:35:22
Speaker 1: Praying that they do. Honestly, you too cool. Next on the docket, Rachel Pilot Rachel or Sweet Rachel Rekia addresses harsh criticism about her appearance. Things have gotten really, really bad, and honestly, this was a hard one for me too. For anybody that doesn't know, Rachel got really sick and has been dealing with it for a while now and it just led to different weight losses and has really just tried to find a realm in which she's very happy and confident in the way that she looks and has been battling with what's been going on in her personal life. And yeah, it's it's one of those things that's like people forget that there's a human on the other side of their comments that read and experience these things, and it's like, yeah, like in their eyes, work, we're characters on this TV show, and like you can hate people, you can love people, but like when it really comes down to it, like break away from the show and look at somebody's social media, Like that is where they express themselves. That is their art. That's where they get to control their own narrative and to drop things on them of like not liking how they look or saying they look sickly or whatever it is that's being said, Like it's not fair to that individual, especially when they're doing their absolute best that they know how to do. And especially for Rachel.

00:36:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like you described that so well, that these like were characters on TV. But then like we have real feelings and Rachel is one of the kindest people I know, and we look at her and we see this incredible, beautiful woman before and after a kind of little transformation that's happened over like the last year. And I hate it that people are comment about her appearance and telling her that she looked better before she lost all this weight. She didn't lose all this weight on purpose. She was sick. But in the meantime, she's become used to this body and she's thin and she's beautiful. She feels healthy now, she's not sick anymore. She feels healthy at this weight, and there's no reason for her to go back to the weight that they think she looks better at. Let give her some grace. She has been sick, she has dealt with a lot of crap right now, and she's back and she's herself and she looks freaking hot, and leave her alone. That's from coming from Mama Joan.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: And if she's happy, just be happy for her, Like there's no reason to tear anybody down while they're just doing their absolute best.

00:37:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. I love how you like. Yeah, we're not characters, we're real people, okay, and talking about real people. So Lexi Young And I don't know if you remember her, she was on Joey season. I remember her so well. Lexi Young responds to criticism about her love life, quote, have you found a BF yet? So, Lexi, it has been commenting because she has started her own business and I'm thrilled for her, and it's actually a dating business.

00:38:16
Speaker 1: Now.

00:38:16
Speaker 2: If you guys remember Lexi, she was the one that self eliminated during Joey's season because she had a biological clock and she was not on the same timeline as his he he I think commented that he wanted to wait about four years before he got married. She has andemetriosis. She has a really bad case of it. She wants to get pregnant soon because she thinks that Tymine is going to it may take her a long time. So she came off the show. She's self eliminated, saying that she needed to find a boyfriend. She wanted to find her person and she wanted to move on with life. And now all of a sudden, she has this really successful business that she did while dating and that has kind of taken over her life and people are criticizing her about that. What do you think about that, Jonathan, That she put her personal life on hold a little bit to start her business.

00:38:59
Speaker 1: Yes, it's tough. I mean I can understand too of like putting your your own personal matters to the side to grow professionally. And I know she was also on paradise like that has been a huge narrative for herself. Is like, hey, I need to find somebody quick, and if you're not willing to be quick with me, then like that's it. So I can understand where like people might see that and be like, oh, okay, so your timeline is this, but you're focusing on other people like finding love, Like why haven't you And it's like again back to the characters thing, like just let people live, Like it's yeah, she wants to find the right person. She's not going to settle and like have a kid with the wrong person for the sake of having it. Like she has a moral compass to like as much as like, yes, I do have this clock Like she also has the desire to have a family, not just have a kid, you know what I mean. So to put that pressure on somebody, it's like, well, if I don't have this now, I'm going to put my focus into something else until that thing comes along. Like I can't sit there and just pray every day and then beat myself up that I don't have it. It's like, okay, well I'm going to keep progressing in my life, moving it forward, doing my best, and when that time comes, that time will come and we'll deal with it then. But like, yeah, that's not up to other people to die, and.

00:40:16
Speaker 2: They can exist together. I mean, she actually is working in the dating field, so I gotta mess, you know. I imagine that she is exposed to you know, men her age that you know, maybe if she isn't finding them love with somebody in you know, in her business, maybe it'll end up being her. I think they can coexist. And sometimes people find love in their workplace, and you know, maybe that will happen for her. But again, just like you said, let her be her and if she now you know, has changed her priorities, let you know, good for her. And there's lots of ways to have babies. Maybe she's going to one day adopt, Maybe she's going to freeze her eggs and have a surrogate. You know, there are other ways to do this. You know, people are getting pregnant later and later, and getting pregnant has become harder and hard over the years. I mean, once you you know, kind of past thirty five or something like. The chances are very hard and there are there's lots of science that is making it okay for people that as they get older. So let her do her thing with her business and she'll figure out her love life when she's ready.

00:41:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. I couldn't agree more Anyways, guys, that is it for bachel Nation News. Thanks for catching up with us, and thanks for joining us for Golden Hour and letting us fill in with for Kathy and Susan.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, and make sure to rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen.

00:41:30
Speaker 1: To podcasts yep, and you can follow Golden Hour on social media at Bachelor Happy Hour and at Bachelination on all socials.

00:41:40
Speaker 2: See you next time