Gerry Turner followed in the footsteps of several Bachelors before him when he said “I love you” to more than one contestant, but the Golden Bachelor managed to escape some of the same backlash.
“He is a little older so we give him a little leniency,” Joe Amabile told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview with Wells Adams to promote their partnership with Diageo’s newly launched ready-to-serve Cocktail Collection. “Our Bachelors have a little experience going into their season where Gerry — he never watch the show, he never partook in The Bachelorette. … He’s 70-something-years-old so whatever, you’ve got to take your shots.”
Wells, 39, went on to compare Gerry — who said the L-word to his top three contestants Faith Martin, Leslie Fhima and now-fiancée Theresa Nist — to season 20 Bachelor Ben Higgins.
“I don’t know who you guys consider be the best Bachelor that we ever had, but I always say it was Ben Higgins and he did that too,” Wells said, referring to Ben famously saying “I love you” to Lauren Bushnell and JoJo Fletcher. “So, listen, maybe there’s something to it. I think that’s what made Gerry so lovable is he’s very believable. I believe all the things that he saying. He came at it very authentically. And then I think that he did probably feel very strongly for three women and so I can kind of give someone some grace if I think that they really felt that way.”
Gerry, 72, ended up proposing to Theresa, 70.
“Now if I think he was being, like, an F boy and, you know, just trying to get peoples’ pants then I would be like, ‘Gross.’ But I really believe that Gerry felt this way and so I’m allowing him a little bit of grace in that scenario,” Wells continued. “Should [he] have done it? Probably not, but here we are.”
Joe agreed. “It’s hard to picture Gerry as an F boy. I think that’s what he’s got going for him,” he said.
The Golden Bachelor delivered ABC’s best ratings in the franchise in years, with fans hoping for a season 2 of The Golden Bachelorette.
“I think they’ll be able to do it [again] pretty easily,” Joe said when asked if Gerry was the key to making The Golden Bachelor successful.
“We talk about this a lot, like, what makes a really good show,” Wells noted. “[It] is not drama — it’s really stakes and it’s hard for the stakes to be really, really high for a 25-year-old personal trainer who’s got abs all over. But the stakes for someone who have been older, who’s lived a little bit more life, who’s had some tragedy and ups and downs all the sudden that story becomes really, really compelling. I think that’s why everyone in America grabbed on because we know people who are widowers or divorcees and scared that their last love is long gone. So with that being casting in a pool of people who have lived a lot of life and have amazing stories, I think that it’ll be really successful — I don’t want to say easy, like, he was a diamond in rough. I don’t know if we have another Gerry, but I think that they’ll be a lot of really good compelling story lines.”
The Bachelor in Paradise bartender noted he is rooting for Joan Vassos, who was forced to leave early for a family emergency, as the first senior female to hand out roses.
“[With] Joan, I was like, ‘She should be the Golden Bachelorette, like, I got to know about how the daughter is doing, how’s the grandchild doing. What happened with the labor?’ I actually looked into it,” Wells told Us. “I think it’ll be very easily duplicated but no one’s every going to be Gerry.”
Joe, for his part, is hoping runner-up Leslie gets her shot after she revealed on his “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast that Gerry allegedly promised Leslie she was The One during their overnight date.
“I think if they do a Golden Bachelorette, it should be Leslie. I really do. I really think Leslie was someone who is all in,” Joe said. “Unfortunately, Gerry did open up to her in the fantasy suites and make promises that he did not keep. To be final two and to really think, like, you’re one and then not to be is really rough. I think she’s so personable and sweet and just, like, a lovely person I think she would make an excellent lead. And honestly, selfishly, I can’t wait to see them cast 60 to 70 year old men because we’re gonna start seeing some real comedy.”
While Bachelor Nation waits for the network’s next move in the Golden franchise, Wells and Joe are focused on the holiday season — and serving The Cocktail Collection (which includes the Ketel One Espresso Martini, the Ketel One Cosmopolitan and the Tanqueray Negroni) to their family and friends.
“[The Cocktail Collection] is basically elevated drink solutions for holiday parties. … [and] it’s not, like, single serve. It’s a pretty large format. You can get, like, a four serving or an eight serving, which is so money,” Wells said. “This whole thing has made my life so much better — you can get it nationwide at Drizly. Everyone just go do this and stop schlepping at the bar making drinks for everyone and their sister because it’s annoying when you actually want to enjoy your party.”
