Joan Vassos is revealing her most embarrassing moment behind the scenes of The Golden Bachelorette.
Vassos told Entertainment Weekly after the Men Tell All, which aired Nov. 6, that there was one awkward situation that didn’t make it into the show’s blooper reel.
Thinking back on hometown dates, Vassos explained that she was in Kansas with Chock when things went awry.
“It was really hot — it was honestly like 105 degrees,” she told the outlet. “There was a little bit of a breeze, but it was hot and humid. I had a sundress on, and I had those chicken cutlet things [in my dress], like they're boob pads. I had those on because I have the sundress on, and you can't have bra straps showing.”
“It's probably three hours into the date, and I've just sweated for hours and hours,” she said. “Finally, it's getting towards the end of the date, and Chock is standing in front of the 30 people. We had done that ceremony to honor his mother, so he had lots of family and friends there. We're standing in front of everybody, and he is talking about me, about ‘how much I adore this woman and this journey that we've had.’”
“As he's talking, I can feel the boob pad coming unstuck,” she continued. “I feel it starting to slip and I'm trying to stop it with my arm, and I can't do it. It makes it down to my stomach, and then it comes right off the bottom of the dress, and there it is by my foot! We're standing in front of everybody. There's no chance nobody saw it. But the cameras, I don't think caught it, because they definitely would've shown it. So that was the one that I got away with.”
There were also more serious moments that the audience didn’t get to see. Vassos recently opened up to PEOPLE about how she used mental health resources to overcome grief for her late husband John while being the Golden Bachelorette.
“I really struggled with that in the middle of the season,” she told PEOPLE. “The Bachelor gives you access to psychiatrists that are actually at the mansion with you on the show, and so I did that. I actually had an appointment with them and we talked about what it would be, why it was so hard for me to move on in this journey and that I felt like I was still in love with John and I never would not be in love with him. And they're like, ‘Well, that's fine.’”
“They said, ‘Picture it like you have a balloon in each hand. One is John and one is this other person that you have feelings for, and you don't have to let go of this one to have this one also,’” she added. “There's room in your heart and in your memory for more than one person.’ And I just needed to hear that it was okay. I didn't have to not love John anymore, and I didn't know that.”
Because the show forced her to move quickly both in dating the men and welcoming feelings she hadn’t experienced in a long time back into her heart, Vassos said she changed in ways she never expected.
“I evolved a lot over the season,” she said. “I came in there thinking that I was so ready to find love and then realized that it's a way different journey than I thought it was going to be. But I feel like I grew, and I don't think I ever would be where I am today if I hadn't done this, because it kind of gave me the motivation to get through some of these emotions quickly because I wanted to end up with somebody.”