Gerry Turner foreshadowed his impending appearance on The Bachelor, stating that he broke his own rules very quickly.
The 72-year-old is the first elderly adult to appear on the Golden Bachelor, a spin-off of the massively popular dating programme.
On the new ABC comedy, which premieres on September 28th, the retired restaurateur begins his search for love.
He revealed that he unwittingly violated all of the rules he set for himself, revealing what viewers might expect.
‘I had a few rules, but I was breaking them all. That was the problem. So I decided I would stop,’ he said in a new interview.
‘[My daughters and granddaughters] were worried that I was going to be that guy that was kissing everybody on the first night. And I said, “Nope, I’m not going to kiss anyone on the first night. You’re not going to see that. Maybe not even as we get into it.”
‘Well, as you’ll see, I failed on the very first night, but I don’t feel bad about it at all.’
Despite venturing outside his comfort zone on the show, Gerry stated that he had ‘no regrets’ about getting intimate with any of the competitors.
‘As time went on, many of those kisses were of affection,’ he added to Us Weekly. ‘I really wanted to be supportive of all the women. I wanted them to feel good about themselves.’
Gerry resorted to the Bachelor for a new partner after his wife, Toni, died in 2017.
He claimed that his girls were the driving force behind his choice to apply for the show, and he predicted that his late wife would be proud of him.
Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to follow his adventure, since the Golden Bachelor premieres this week.
‘After more than 20 years of fostering young love on The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, The Golden Bachelor showcases a whole new kind of love story – one for the golden years,’ the official synopsis reads.
‘On this all-new unscripted series, one hopeless romantic is given a second chance at love in the search for a partner with whom to share the sunset years of life.
‘The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities.
‘In the end, will our Golden man turn the page to start a new chapter with the woman of his dreams?’
The Golden Bachelor premieres on ABC on Thursday at 8pm ET.
