Summary
Gerry Turner was chosen to beThe Golden Bachelorfor the spin-off’s inaugural season, but he proved to be the worstBachelorlead of all time. Since premiering in 2002,The Bachelorhas aired 28 seasons, andThe Bacheloretteis about to air season 22. Gerry is the most memorable franchise lead, and not for the best reasons. Audiences were thrilled when the 72-year-old retired restaurateur was named as the firstGolden Bachelor, and single women in their 60s and 70s rushed to apply for a chance to win his final rose.
Not only was Gerry tall, attractive, and energetic, but he had a poignant backstory as a widower who had been single since the death of his beloved wife of 43 years in 2017. WhenThe Golden Bachelorseason 1premiered, it seemed like casting Gerry was smart. However, it wasn’t long untilGerry turned out to be a different man than the version of him that was sold to audiencesby the ABC marketing team. With theGoldendivorce recently being settled, Gerry has been the target of criticism. That’s good because he’s the worst bachelor lead of all time.
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8Gerry Lied About His Love Life
Secret Relationship
When Gerry made his television debut duringThe Golden Bachelorseason 1, he told a very compelling story. After 42 glorious years of marriage with the love of his life, Toni Turner,she suddenly passed away in 2017 following a brief illness. Her death came right after the couple had built their dream home near a lake in Indiana. Gerry was reportedly so heartbroken that he couldn’t even think about dating someone new, until the producers ofThe Golden Bacheloroffered him this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
A great story, to be sure, but it wasn’t quite true.
In November 2023,The Hollywood Reporterdropped a bombshell story revealing that Gerry had lied about his dating history, among other things.The Golden Bachelorhadn’t been singlesince his late wife’s death -he’d been in a three-year-long relationship with a woman, whom he’d even lived with for a time. Obviously, the fiction about Gerry was a much better story than the truth, but it’s one of the reasons why he’s theBachelorfranchise’s worst lead.
7Gerry Wasn’t Completely Honest About His Career
The Golden Handyman
The sameHollywood Reporterarticle went on to exposethe truth about Gerry’s work history. Though Gerry identified as a retired restaurateur, the truth was, as usual, more complicated than that. Though he did once own a small diner, he sold the place many years ago - after his stint in the restaurant business, heworked as a maintenance person. Though there’s nothing wrong with doing that job, Gerry obviously believes that it’s not good enough. That’s why he had to embellish hisThe Golden Bachelorpast.
6Gerry Hit On Kris Jenner
Keeping Up With Hitting On The Kardashians
The Golden Bachelorattracted many celebrity fans, andone of the show’s biggest celebrity fans was Kendall Jenner. Knowing what a huge fan of the show her daughter was, reality TV superstar and Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner invited Gerry over for dinner. On that evening, they also had a viewing party with the family.
According to Kendall, Gerry flirted with her mother Kris throughout the evening, as she told producers during an outtake from anepisode ofThe Kardashians.
“Yes, he was commenting on her smile and her eyes and her energy,” Kendall told producers. “I’m like, I think we should leave, like, I don’t know!”
Later in the episode, producers asked Kris if Gerry had flirted with her, but she neither confirmed nor denied the accusation. The fact that Gerry was flirting with Kris while he was engaged to Theresa is one of many reasons he was such a problematicBachelor.
5Gerry Misled Leslie Fhima
He Told Her She Was “The One”
After dating the 22 amazing women ofThe Golden Bachelorseason 1, Gerry whittled his options down to65-year-old dance instructor Leslie Fhimaand 70-year-old day trader Theresa Nist. During Gerry’s overnight date with Leslie, he looked deeply into her in the eyes and told her that she was “the one.”
ThoughBachelorleads are all in the awkward position of spending the night with women whose heart they’re about to breakon national television, telling someone that they’re “the one” is taking it a step too far. No one can blame Leslie for thinking that she was about to walk away with the man she loves, only to have him propose to someone else.
4Gerry Flaunts His Love Life
He’s A Ladies Man
Since Gerry and Theresa announced theirGoldendivorce in April 2024, there has been significant speculation about their love lives. Gerry recently set tongues wagging when he toldTMZthat though he wasn’t ready to start dating again just yet,he was being inundated with women sliding into his DMs. He claims that women are also approaching him in person, handing him their phone numbers. He says that he hasn’t contacted any of the women, but that hasn’t stoppedGerry from bragging about his love life.
For Theresa’s part, she has been entirely focused on her family since the divorce and hasn’t commented about whether any men had been sliding into her DMs.
3Gerry Doesn’t Take Things Seriously
Everything Is A Joke To Him
In June 2024,Gerryposted a carousel of photos to Instagram from a recent fundraising event that he was involved in. The post has 4.6K likes, and Gerry’s caption reads, “Great friends coming together for fun and fundraising.“The photos commemorate a fun day on the lake with friends and family, all for a good cause, and feature photos ofThe Golden Bachelorstar flaunting his fit, sun-kissed physique.
In the first photo of the album, Gerry rocks a tee shirt that reads, “Indiana. It’s Not That Bad.”
This is like Gerry’s message to Theresa, who famously refused to move to Indiana, triggering the end of theGoldenmarriage.
Though it’s always good thatGerry has a sense of humorabout life’s disappointments, making a joke about a recent divorce is distasteful on Gerry’s part.They say that comedy is tragedy plus time, and this is an equation that Gerry would do well to master. As the divorce is still very fresh, Gerry should have considered letting a little more time pass before making a wisecrack about the dissolution of his marriage.
2Gerry Attended A Dating Event
Terrible Optics
Weeks after announcing his split from Theresa,TheGolden Bacheloralum was spotted at a dating event, according toIndyStar.On May 17, the newly single Gerry attended the TinCaps Love and Roses Night event in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in which singles compete in a series of challenges for a chance to win a dating package. Though it appeared that Gerry was hosting the charity dating event, as opposed to participating, the optics were terrible. For weeks, rumors abounded that Gerry was dating someone new before the ink on his divorce papers had dried.
For the sake ofThe Golden Bachelorbrand, Gerry should be more careful about where he lets himself be spotted.
1Gerry Didn’t Try Hard Enough
Three Months Isn’t Enough Time
The Golden Bachelorweddingaired on ABC in January 2024, and Gerry and Theresa announced their divorce in April, less than four months later. Though there’s something to be said for dragging things out, three months simply isn’t enough time to know if a marriage can work. That being said, Gerry is getting blamed for the divorce, which is unfair as it takes two to tango. Theresa is every bit as responsible for the breakdown of theGoldenmarriage as Gerry is.
Gerry and Theresa both blame their divorce on the fact that they couldn’t agree on where they’d live.
Gerry lived in Indiana, in the house he had built with his late wife, near his two daughters and his two granddaughters. Theresa lived far away, in New Jersey, where she had raised a family with her late husband, William Nist. Theresa didn’t want to move away from her two children and six grandchildren. The bottom line is that though Gerry and Theresa fell in love, neither ofThe Golden Bachelorseason 1 stars were willing to make sacrifices to be together.
He had a secret girlfriend
While engaged to Theresa
He told her she was “the one”
He brags about women sliding into his DMs
He jokes about his divorce from Theresa
Too soon
3 months isn’t enough
The Golden Bachelor
Cast
The Bachelor returns to TV with The Golden Bachelor, a romantic reality competition series created for ABC. The show will focus on an older generation of hopefuls, with one senior male hoping to court and win the heart of one of several older female contestants.
