Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner’s journey for love is almost over, and he still has one major decision to make.
Following emotional hometown dates, Gerry, 72, selected Theresa Nist and Leslie Fhima as his final two contestants.
“I want to be engaged, but the possibility is there that I could make the wrong choice,” he said in a teaser for the Thursday, November 16, episode. “No matter what, someone’s going to come out of this situation hurt beyond what I can imagine.”
It appears Gerry’s final choice takes a toll on him, as he tearfully tells host Jesse Palmer, “This just isn’t worth all of it. I took a good person and broke their heart. The only time I’ve ever felt worse in my whole life is when my wife passed away, and this is a goddamn close second.”
The Golden Bachelor airs on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. Scroll below to see everything the show’s cast and crew have teased about season 1’s ending:
Dropping the L-Bomb
Gerry exclusively told Us Weekly in September that he was “wrong” to think he wouldn’t say “I love you” to more than one woman. “Through the course of the journey, I really felt strong feelings for several of the women,” he explained, clarifying that he wasn’t fully “in love” with some of them.
“In retrospect, I realized that in that particular moment, whenever it was — the setting was such that, ‘Yeah, it was easy to look at someone and tell ’em that you loved ’em,’” he continued. “But once you get through it all and you look back, then you realize that there is just really one person that really meets the standard in all situations that you want it to be.”
Having ‘No Regrets’
Reflecting on his connections, Gerry told Us that he had “no regrets” about how he handled the physical aspects of their relationship. “[My family] brought up the fantasy suites. And the reality is I kept trying to explain to them that as you get older, the priorities for a situation like that are more intellectual, more emotional rather than physical,” he stated. “And indeed, it did turn out to be exactly that. … I was happy how it turned out. Being able to have a conversation off camera was critically important.”
Happily Ever After
“I’m very happy about how the season went. There was excitement, there was joy, there was great dates, a lot of adventure,” Gerry shared during a September interview on The View. “I wouldn’t be sitting here with a big smile on my face [if I wasn’t happy].”
Getting Down on One Knee
Gerry has implied that he popped the question.
“As I was dating [before the show], I was looking for the person that I would spend the rest of my life with regardless of the label,” Gerry told Us in October. “And as I got closer and closer to the process started in the show, I really kind of came to realize that I did indeed want to be married, that I wanted that commitment, that two-way street. And so as I got into the show, that was my objective.”
He went on to note that his late wife, Toni, would be happy about the season’s “good conclusion.”
Staying Open-Minded
“I will tell you, one thing that really was great about Gerry is that he was always open, until he knew that he wasn’t. And so when he’s with someone, that relationship is all that matters,” executive producer Jason Ehrlich told The Hollywood Reporter in November. “And so as we get down towards the end, it gets really intense and difficult and emotional, and things play out in ways we’ve never seen before. And it’s because he stayed open and really wanted to get to the end of this with a person that he was sure he explored everything with, and he was sure his decision was right. In order to do that, he didn’t close off. He stayed open. And it’s really powerful.”
Processing Feelings
Gerry explained being in love with his final three women during a November episode of the Tamron Hall Show. “They were unique, genuine women. And by the end of my journey, I realized, of course, that only one of them was the woman I can’t live without,” he shared, adding, “There’s a level of affection that doesn’t quite make it that person who you want to spend the rest of your life with.”
Nothing But Smiles
When asked by ABC’s George Pennacchio how his Golden Bachelor journey comes to a close on the 2023 CMAs red carpet, Gerry stated, “I wear a smile perpetually now. I’m very happy about where things finished.”
A Dramatic Finale
“Gerry’s journey concludes over the next few weeks, and the big question now [is] will he find great love for the second time in his life?” Jesse teased during the show’s Women Tell All episode. “I’m obviously not gonna tell you that, but what I will say is that what happens next is so emotional, it is going to have all of America in tears.”
The host noted that the “emotional ending” is going to be one “no one’s gonna want to miss.”
Keeping an Open Mind
“There was a watershed moment in those fantasy suites, and the watershed moments happened twice, one for each fantasy suite,” Gerry explained to The Hollywood Reporter in November. “And up until that point, if I had not remained open-minded, I might have made a mistake. Who knows how it would have ended.”
