"Golden Bachelorette" Joan Vassos is addressing the "mean messages" she says she's received on social media.
Over the weekend, Vassos shared a video with one of her daughters talking about the messages she’s gotten from fans. While some have told Vassos in DMs about how they relate to her story this season, Vassos said that she’s also received messages from others criticizing the way she looks or the choices she's made so far this season.
"I’ve been noticing more and more that I get really mean messages from people or I’ve done something wrong and that I’m mean, maybe I don’t listen," she said in the video.
'Golden Bachelorette' recap: Joan Vassos makes a big decision after hometowns
"The bullying has shocked me and I have to say it does hurt my feelings at this age," she continued. "I thought bullying wasn’t a thing anymore."
She then asks her daughter if bullying still happens among those who are her age or if it’s just something that happens to those who are on television.
"I think that people that are miserable are miserable," her daughter said. "Nothing you can do about it."
"Age isn’t gonna make them less miserable," she added. "I was surprised to see how mean people are."
Vassos then thought about how hard it must be for those who are younger that may experience bullying on social media.
"I think back, if I’m a pretty strong person and my feelings aren’t hurt that easily, how hard it must be to be a teenager now," Vassos said. "Because they attack you from this remote location and they can kind of hide behind their screens."
"I’m a little surprised that I’m dealing with this at the age of 61 to be perfectly honest," she added.
'Golden Bachelorette' Joan Vassos gets support from Theresa Nist, packs for upcoming season
At the end of the video, Vassos’ daughter had a message to those who shared those mean comments to her mom.
"Bullying's outdated," she said. "Just stop. It was never cool. It’s not cool. It’s never gonna be cool."
"And does it make it really feel better by making somebody else feel worse?" Vassos said.
