Joan from the Golden Bachelorette says her DMs include D–k pics and foot requests

Joan Vassos‘ DMs went so wild after they appeared The golden bachelor that her children had to intervene.

“[With DMs]they’re just complete strangers messaging you. I didn’t really respond to that much. Or I would have little conversations and say, ‘Thank you, you’re so flattering,’ or whatever,” the Golden Bachelorette, 61, said in an interview with Entertainment weekly published on Wednesday, August 14.” But none of them seemed to be something that would actually work.

Joan added that some of the messages she received were “weird.”

“I have dk pics,” she revealed. “And I have people with foot fetishes. They wanted me to send them pictures of my feet and pay me for them. One person offered to buy all the shoes I was wearing Golden bachelor. It was scary.”

When the requests continued to get strange, Joan’s children decided to help their mother by filtering out the messages.

“My kids said, ‘Give me your phone, Mom. We are blocking all of this,” she said.

Joan, who shares four children with her late husband Johannes Vassosconfessed she was finding it ‘difficult to navigate her dating life’ after appearing on the ABC dating series. She even tried dating apps, which she appreciated were “a little bit vetted,” unlike the wild world of social media.

Bachelor fans were introduced to Joan last year as she was one of the many contestants in pursuit Gerry Turner. While Joan scored a one-on-one date with Gerry, 72, she ultimately left the show to support her daughter, who had just given birth.

Despite her early departure, Joan was crowned the spin-off’s next lead.

“There’s a lot of knowledge in us because we’ve lived life,” Joan told CNN after her casting was announced. “In our culture I feel like growing old is not a dignified thing. The idea is that you disappear a bit in the back, take a backseat for the next generation. I hope we change that a little. We’re still fun and energetic and we know how to use our phones.

Before she set out on her journey to find love, she received some words of wisdom from her now ‘good friend’ Gerry.

“He was an example of someone who is very open and vulnerable. He said you have to be that from day one because you don’t have a lot of time,” she said in a June interview with Entertainment tonight. “This is a fast journey. You can’t leave anything on the table. I feel like on day one, the first conversation starts, everything you do here is important.

Earlier this week, ABC released a sneak peek at Joan’s suitors. Bachelor Nation was quick to point out that alum Kelsey Anderson‘s father, Mark Andersonwas one of the men in the running. (Kelsey, 26, is currently engaged The bachelor season 28 head start Joey Graziadei.)

“Wellllllll, will you take a look at that,” Kelsey wrote via her Instagram Story on Tuesday alongside a photo of her father from the announcement.

The Golden Bachelorette premieres on ABC Wednesday, September 18.