Golden Bachelorette's Joan and Chock Clarify They Aren't Cohabitating Despite NYC Apartment Plans

While Joan Vassos and Chock Chapple are planning on putting down some roots together in New York City, they clarified that they’re not moving in together. Rather, the Golden Bachelorette couple will split time between the Big Apple and their respective homes in Maryland and Kansas.

“We’re going to be going back and forth between Kansas and Maryland and to New York,” Chock, 61, explained to People. “We’ll have a full-time place in New York and whenever we get the opportunity, we’re going to be there. We’re going to get it figured out this next year.”

Joan, 61, and Chock revealed that they’re headed to New York City on Friday, November 15, and will start looking for places on November 18, with the West Village in mind as their dream neighborhood. “When we want to be alone together, we’ll probably be in New York,” Joan confirmed.

The pair said they hope to have a place in NYC secured by the holidays so they can spend some time in the city after Christmas. “If nothing else, we’ll certainly get a hotel or do an Airbnb,” Joan revealed. “I love that tradition. I love Christmas in the city.”

With the holidays fast approaching, Joan and Chock are already planning on spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family in Maryland. For Thanksgiving – which Joan spends with her late husband’s family – they’ll be joined by Chock’s two children as well.

“Our kids have gotten to know each other a little bit over the phone and texting, but they’re finally going to get to spend four or five days together,” Joan spilled. “We can’t wait for them to be together because we feel like they are going to have a lot of fun with each other. It’s weird at this age to welcome a new stepsibling into your life and that’s what it’s going to be for them.”

Joan and Chock got engaged during the Golden Bachelorette finale, which was filmed in July and aired on Wednesday, November 13. After they were finally able to go public with their romance, they dished on their future plans, and admitted that a wedding wasn’t in the immediate future.

“I’m finally looking forward to the next chapter of my life,” Joan said on Good Morning America. “I had lost that for quite a while. So I think [we’re] just living a little bit of a normal life for a bit. And then I think we’ll start doing wedding planning.”

Of the decision to get a place in New York, she told Us Weekly, “The first year, obviously, we have to kind of figure out life. Chock has a business in Kansas and I have kids and grandkids in Maryland. I’m not leaving Maryland, but he does have obligations in Kansas. We know that we’re gonna spend time in Maryland and in Kansas, and then we have this really fun plan because both of us have always dreamed – and we’re finally at this weird stage in life for making this dream come true – that we live in a big city, and specifically, we’ve always wanted to live in New York. So Chock surprised me and said, ‘I want us to go find a place.’”