The Golden Bachelorette star Joan Vassos has explained why a part of her doesn't want to get married.

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Joan picked Chock Chapple as her The Golden Bachelorette winner and they got engaged on the show's finale that aired in November 2024 on ABC.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

Ever since then, fans have been wondering when Joan and Chock are going to tie the knot.

"My son is getting married this summer, so I'm focusing on that. And honestly, I just don't feel like planning a wedding right now," Joan said during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour: Golden Hour" podcast hosted by Kathy Swarts and Susan Noles.

Joan went on to admit: "And you know what? There's also a little part of my brain that says, 'If we get married, then we have to make more of an effort to live in the same place,' and we're not ready to do that yet."

Although Joan and Chock made a serious commitment to each other, the couple is not even living together.

With Joan in Maryland and Chock based in Kansas, the pair decided to continue living in their respective states in order to be close to their parents, children and grandkids.

(Joan welcomed four kids with her late husband John Vassos, who passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2021. Chock, for his part, shares two children with his ex-wife Heather).

"He has a business that needs his attention, or he could sell it. The end goal is to sell it, but right now, it needs his attention," Joan shared.

Joan added how she's not having any more babies and so she's not worried about her "biological clock" or anything like that.

"We are in a good place; We don't need to have a marriage certificate to say that we're in a good place," Joan insisted.

But Joan assured fans, "One day, we'll have a wedding!"

And when that time does finally come, Joan said she'd love to have an "intimate and small" wedding.

"I've done a big wedding and I've done my kids' big weddings," Joan noted. "I've had so many big weddings in my life that I could elope at this point!"

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In the meantime, the couple has been traveling and enjoying time together.

Joan and Chock also still on the hunt for a "love shack" apartment -- according to Chock -- in New York City, where they'll be able to meet up and have romantic adventures.

"We got reenergized when we were there [recently]," Joan explained.

"We kind of stopped looking a little bit, just because life got really busy, and we didn't really want to get a place up there we weren't going to spend much time in, because obviously it's expensive and it's a little bit of a trip for [Chock]. It's easy for me; I can take a train up there."

Joan said she and Chock thought they'd have all the time in the world after filming The Golden Bachelorette but that hasn't been the case at all.

Instead, new opportunities and doors have opened for the happy couple post-show.

Joan also pointed out how many NYC apartments are only available for a day or two "and then they're gone."

"So we think after the summer, things will get easier and we'll have that time," Joan teased.

But Joan confirmed that her heart is still set on getting a place in New York -- "even more" now than before.

"As we've spent more time there, we get more and more comfortable... and we're less focused on one particular area, which we were in the beginning," Joan shared.

"So it will be easier and I think we'll have more time in September-ish."

Chock had said in February that he and Joan would "likely" get married in 2025, but then he confirmed in May a wedding wasn't going to happen any time soon because they were "crazy busy."

But Chock said he's well aware fans want to watch Joan walk down the aisle again.

"As you get older, it's really not that important. We want to get married, but the timing just needs to be right," Chock said.

"We see each other at least every other week and it's going very well. She's a great lady!"

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And Joan told Parade in February that she's very confident her romance with Chock will last forever.

"Everybody looks at this like... 'There's no way this can work because you're not together every minute.' We don't feel the same way about it," Joan explained at the time.

She went on to gush, "I fall more and more in love with him every day. He has a great sense of humor. He's an easy person to be around. He's funny. My kids adore him. My grandson, [the] last time Chock was leaving, he said, 'I don't want that guy to go.' He requires nothing."

The Golden Bachelorette star therefore concluded, "So you might not need to spend every waking moment together or you might not need to live in the same city, and that's how we feel right now about it."

Joan also told Parade that the idea of planning a wedding seemed "overwhelming" to her.

Joan also threw shade at The Golden Bachelor couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist for tying the knot in January 2024, just a few months after their marriage proposal aired on ABC, and then filing for divorce in April 2024.

During a January episode of the "Two Jersey Js" podcast, Joan said, "I think that we all kind of maybe learned a lesson from Gerry and Theresa that maybe that was too quick and they probably don't want to make that mistake again."

"I certainly am not in any rush to get married. I am actually really happy right now, just not having anything to do," she added.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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