Having lunch with the “It Couple” of the year certainly brightened a recent dreary, rainy day. And who that couple would be, you ask.
The Golden Bachelorette, Joan Vassos, and her fiancé, Wichitan Chock Chapple, of course. I met Chock when he was this year’s mystery guest at the annual Gridiron Show, a fundraiser for journalism scholarships. He was a good sport and proved he preferred to talk off-the-cuff instead of relying on a script.
Joan said she kept asking him if he had memorized his lines. She wasn’t surprised he hadn’t.
Needless to say, being on “The Golden Bachelorette” on national television gave him a bigger audience than four performances at Roxy’s Downtown, and he’s says it has been quite an adventure.
After talking for nearly two hours it is clear they are a couple who are planning to get married, but are not in a hurry. Joan’s son is getting married and they’re concentrating on that wedding first.
A personal observation: they make a great looking couple. Think a golden version of Ken and Barbie here. They’re both friendly, genuine and fun to spend time with.
Joan had been one of the women on the last “Golden Bachelor,” so she was somewhat familiar with all that goes into the series. “But it was much different being the “main.”
“It’s a lot more pressure,” she said. Chock got involved in the vetting process last April but it was several weeks longer than that for Joan.
“My daughter got me into this but I was looking for a challenge so why not do it? I had never watched the show but why not give it a shot?” Chock said.
He added his biggest worry entering this adventure came when his daughter warned him, “Don’t be sent home the first night, Dad. You’ll embarrass the family!”
One of Joan’s concerns before the show started was having to eliminate six men the first night. “I didn’t think that seemed fair. How do you know anyone at all after just a short conversation?”
“I also worried that I wouldn’t have a connection with any of them,” she said. After meeting all of the men on the first episode, she realized that wasn’t going to be a problem.
Did she ever regret sending someone home? She said she had no regrets about any of her choices.
I asked them what surprises they had during the taping of the show. Joan said she was surprised how quickly a relationship can form with someone when you’re pressed for time. “You don’t have time for all the small talk. And it was like losing a friend when they went home,” she said.
It also surprised her how she could function on very little sleep. At one point she had a date in Las Vegas, then caught two hours sleep, jumped on a private jet and was off to her next date. “I had two hours sleep in 48 hours, the schedule is really, really tight,” she said.
She added, “Then when I did get to bed I laid awake with a million things going through my head.”
Chock says something that he acquired during this adventure, besides a lovely fiancé, is a group of new friends.
“Keith, a fan favorite from San Jose, Calif., is coming here to play golf next week,” Chock said. There are several guys who were on the show he plans to stay in touch with.
Both say the extent of notoriety they’re dealing with is something they hadn’t planned on. “It’s even bigger than I ever imagined,” Joan said. “But who at the age of 62 gets to do what we get to do?” They say they’ve met great people and experienced a lot of fun things since the last episode aired.
The couple agrees some stories and social media posts have been hurtful and incorrect. “But we opened ourselves up to the experience,” Joan said, adding that overall they enjoy hearing from their social media followers.
Chock piped up at one point, looking over at Joan, a petite size 2, wearing a chic white sweater and slacks outfit, said, “One thing I love about Joan is her sense of style. She can be sexy, but knows where to draw the line, she is classy and always looks great.”
“She has a lot of clothes. A lot. Maybe too many,” he said as Joan and I said in unison, “No!” I knew I liked this woman.
He then told how she has a lot of beautiful jewelry and has a very organized way of storing it. “I told her that that was great she already had all the jewelry she needed,” Chock said.
Again in unison, a resounding, “No.”
“There’s no such thing as too much jewelry!” Joan said.
Joan has been to Wichita a few times and says she loves coming here because she feels comfortable — everyone is nice, and very welcoming.
“It’s the Midwest culture. I don’t think it’s just me. I think they’re kind to everyone,” she said.
A couple of things surprised me during the interview, which was probably the millionth one they’ve done.
Neither one has watched all or really any of the episodes of the show. “I guess at some point we’ll have a glass of wine and watch,” Chock said.
Two, while they had to hide out and keep the Golden Rose secret until the final show aired, they got together for a few days five times at beautiful houses in various locations.
“That’s when we got to know each other. We couldn’t go anywhere in public, so we ate all our meals at home,” Chock said Good thing Chock enjoys cooking. “Joan is a ‘grazer,’ but also a good cook. She fixes Sunday dinner for her family every week,” he said.
Both said they couldn’t wait to go to a restaurant once they could be seen in public.
If you watched the first episode of the Golden Bachelorette, you might remember that Chock brought Joan a jar of “Chock a noodle soup.” I asked Joan if it is tasty. She said yes, but Chock quickly said, “To tell you the truth her chicken noodle soup is better.”
