72-year-old Gerry Turner made Bachelor Nation history by becoming the first Golden Bachelor.
In this The Bachelor spinoff, contestants aged 60 and over try to find love with an elderly, handsome bachelor.Â
22 women competed for the chance to be Gerry’s next wife.
In the show, Gerry shared his touching story.
He introduced himself as a widower who hadn’t found love since the death of his wife Toni.
He was with his late wife for a long time.
They were high school sweethearts and got married in 1974. Their marriage lasted 43 years until Toni’s death in July 2017.
Fans quickly fell in love with Gerry and his wholesome quest for love.
The premiere earned the highest rating any Bachelor Nation show has seen since 2021, with 13.9 million viewers.
In an interview, Gerry said that before the show, he had remained single since his wife’s death.
“I haven’t dated in 45 years,” he told Entertainment Tonight.
However, that turned out to not be the case.
The Hollywood Reporter uncovered that Gerry hadn’t been truthful on the show about his love life following Toni’s death.
Gerry found love with a younger woman.
The woman, who was given the pseudonym Carolyn in THR‘s report, was 14 years his junior.
He met Carolyn through work.
Though Gerry presented himself as a retired restauranteur, that wasn’t his most recent job. He worked as a maintenance man at the Vera French Mental Health Center in Davenport, IA, where he worked alongside Carolyn, who was a staff accountant.
According to Carolyn, they dated for 10 months and then moved in together for one year and nine months.
Their romance reportedly began shortly after Toni passed away.
Carolyn said she and Gerry had been work friends for a while, but Gerry then retired to move into his Big Long Lake lake house in Indiana with Toni. A month after Toni died, Carolyn received a phone call from Gerry. He asked her for help donating Toni’s corporate clothing to Dress for Success.
Gerry invited Carolyn out to dinner as a “thank you,” but it turned out to be an impromptu date.
She recalled that he texted her saying, “I got LUCKY when you first said you would go to dinner with me two weeks ago. I mean how often does an old geezer get the beautiful girl?” He added in a separate text, “You are the right woman for me. No need to look further.”
According to Carolyn, Gerry asked her to move in with him at his lake house, which was five hours away from her hometown in Iowa.
She eventually agreed to move to Indiana.
Once she moved, Gerry suggested for Carolyn to quit her job and get one closer to the lake house.
Carolyn found a new role at a company in Fort Wayne, which was an hour-long commute.
After moving in July 2018, the relationship took a turn for the worse.
Gerry asked her to chip in with finances.
Carolyn said Gerry asked her to help with the home expenses, paying $850 a month. He also requested for them to split the bill on all meals, with the exception of special occasions. However, at restaurants, Carolyn would have to pay her half in advance so Gerry could appear to have “paid the whole tab, like the big man.”
He also had strict cleanliness rules.
Every morning, he demanded for her to make the bed before having breakfast.
But the worst came when Gerry allegedly criticized her body.
Carolyn recalled that when she was packing to travel for Gerry’s high school reunion on Oct. 2019, he told her, “I’m not taking you to the reunion looking like that” after she gained 10 pounds.
Their breakup was tough.
Gerry reportedly told her to be out of the house by Jan. 1, 2020. He offered to pay for her U-Haul. While packing to move out, she was so overwhelmed by the experience of the harsh breakup that she fell down the stairs and hurt her foot, requiring surgery. She claimed that Gerry then accused her of falling on purpose to stay at the house longer, and even suggested that she was planning to sue him for her injuries.
Without a home, Carolyn ended up staying at a hotel until finding a new place.
She recalled that Gerry told her, “I really wish this would’ve worked out. Call me when you get to your hotel, so I know you made it safe.”
Carolyn’s friends and relatives confirmed to THR that she had a relationship with the Golden Bachelor.
Though Gerry hasn’t spoken about his past relationship with Carolyn, he’s certainly moved on.
In the finale, Gerry will have to pick between 64-year-old Leslie Fhima and 70-year-old Theresa Nist.
It airs on Thursday, Nov. 30 on ABC.
While Gerry may not have been truthful about the full extent of his story, it appears he at least found love through the hit TV show.
