Gerry Turner was ready to find love again. When he became the Golden Bachelor in 2023, he was determined — for the first time since his wife died in 2017 — to put himself back out there.
“I was really open to it,” he told Variety in an interview conducted at the start of the season. “I tried to be careful not to hope for it, because then you might be pushing something that’s really not there. I was trying to be as open as possible to it.”
As shown during the hometown dates of “The Golden Bachelor,” Turner, 72, told both Leslie Fhima and Faith Martin that he loved them. However, he ultimately sent Faith home, keeping Leslie and Theresa Nist, whom he will bring to the fantasy suites.
“It’s funny how in a moment you can get caught up with the concept of falling in love, and then the next day it’s like, no, I loved the moment,” he said. “I failed at that once.”
He went on to explain that he has one regret from the season. Variety held this interview to prevent spoiling anything — and didn’t directly ask what happened inside the fantasy suite.
“I’ve always tried to commit to myself to only try and say ‘I love you’ to one person for the rest of my life. I only wanted to be intimate with one person for the rest of my life. I failed at that,” he said. “That’s what I alluded to about being in the moment and getting all excited about the concept of being in love. I so regretted it, because I felt like I wasn’t true to myself at that moment. This is what I expected of myself and I failed. When you say that to someone, it can become very destructive.”
Turner noted that he felt “awful” afterward, which is what is shown in the trailer for the fantasy suite episode, airing on Nov. 16.
“That’s the situation when you saw me walk out of the room because they kept asking about it,” he said. “That’s still the moment that I most regret.”
