Gerry Turner has spoken up about his time on The Bachelor, saying that he was in a ‘very horrible scenario’ with two women.
The 72-year-old made history as the first Golden Bachelor, and had an emotional debut when he was forced to send the first few hopefuls go during a rose ceremony on last week’s inaugural show.
In tonight’s episode, the retired restaurateur continues his hunt for true love, becoming closer to fitness instructor Leslie.
He has, however, hinted that he found it difficult in the program’s closing phases, when it came down to the final two.
‘I’m down to two people and realize that one of those two has to go home,’ he said. ‘When you’re down to the last two people over that amount of time and that much investment, you really have strong feelings for them even though you know they’re not the right person. They are so close to it.
‘You’re connected so deeply and then you realize they have to leave. Oh my God, it was an incredibly bad situation.’
‘You have to be genuine but you get in a moment when it’s almost as if you fall in love with the concept of being in love,’ he added to Entertainment Tonight of filming,
‘And it’s like, yeah, I want to be there. And the excitement and the glamour of a moment and all the energy, all of a sudden you feel it. And then the next day, when you sort it out, you go, “Oh geez, that wasn’t the authentic feeling that I was looking for.”’
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 audition for the show, and he implied that his late spouse would be proud of his efforts.
After being unveiled as the franchise’s first elderly person seeking for love, the widower revealed what viewers may expect, admitting that he unwittingly violated all of his own rules.
‘I had a few rules, but I was breaking them all. That was the problem. So I decided I would stop,’ he told Us Weekly.
‘[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.
‘As time went on, many of those kisses were of affection. I really wanted to be supportive of all the women. I wanted them to feel good about themselves.’
The Golden Bachelor airs on ABC on Thursdays at 8pm ET.
