Get in Bachelor Nation, we’re finally headed back to the beach! And the Golden Gals and Golden Guys of The Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette are apparently coming with us!
It’s been more than a year since Bachelor in Paradise wrapped its ninth season in December 2023 and took a year off. But The Bachelor‘s messiest, most chaotic spin-off is set to return in summer 2025 with a stacked cast one several major twist. Paradise is in its Golden era, baby!
During The Bachelor Season 29’s three-hour live finale and After The Final Rose event on March 24, franchise host Jesse Palmer made some exciting Paradise announcements. After confirming that The Bachelor Season 29 alum Zoe McGrady is hitting the sand alongside Bachelorette Season 21 contestants Jonathon Johnson and Hakeem Moulton, he welcomed Golden alum Leslie Fhima and Gary Levingston to stage and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your newest and first ever Golden Bachelor in Paradise cast members.”
“This is really happening,” Palmer explained. “For the first time ever Golden men and women will be hitting the beaches of Paradise alongside all of your Bachelor and Bachelorette favorites from seasons past. I don’t know if I ever been more excited for anything ever.”
“I cannot wait,” Fhima, Gerry Turner’s Golden Bachelor runner-up said. “Beaches are my thing. So I’m very excited, and I’m so excited to be with my old friends [and] make new friends…”
Levingston, a contestant on Joan Vassos’ Golden Bachelorette season, said to expect “a lot of dancing in the sand, but more so than that, laying out the sun and just enjoying the moment and looking for love in all the right places.”
“I am most excited to continue my journey, Jesse, because, I think this is my forte, the beach,” Fhima added. “And to see my friends. And Gary and I are good friends!”
Back in September 2024, Decider asked Palmer if he’d be down to host Golden Bachelor in Paradise some day and he said, “Yes! I think that would be an amazing idea. First off, it can’t be in Naples, Florida, or a retirement community. It has to be on a beach, in a tropical paradise type place. There has to be air conditioning. And there has to be an open kitchen with a kitchen cam, so Susan [Noles] and Jack [Lencioni] could just cook all the time. I think it would be amazing. They might actually find love just through their love of the kitchen together, and their personalities. I think it would be great. I am all for that. Let’s do it.”
Golden Bachelorette lead Joan Vassos also told Decider she was rooting for Golden Bachelor in Paradise so her Golden Gals and Golden Guys could find love. “…I think that is a really cute thing, because all the Golden ladies really want to meet the Golden guys. So we need to figure out some way to make that happen,” Vassos said. And now we have!
We always imagined Golden Bachelor in Paradise would be its own show, but with so few single contestants from both seasons, perhaps the time wasn’t right. So what the heck will this hybrid series look like?
Before the finale wrapped, Palmer said, “So how is this whole thing gonna work? You’re gonna have to tune in when a whole new season of Bachelor in Paradise premieres this summer on ABC.”
Earlier this year, Deadline also reported that Bachelor in Paradise is bringing on a new showrunner, Scott Teti, who was an EP on reality series like Claim to Fame and Summer House. So perhaps this is the first step in majorly shaking up the show. After Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 ended in heartbreak here’s hoping Season 10’s cast has better luck finding lasting love at the beach. While we wait more updates, be sure to follow @bachelorinparadise on Instagram and check out the rest of Decider’s Bachelor finale coverage here.
The Bachelor Season 29 is now streaming on Hulu.
