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The “Golden Bachelor” finally gave away the inaugural golden rose.
(Warning, spoilers ahead.)
Gerry Turner, the 72-year-old first “golden bachelor” in the reality-TV dating franchise, picked the person he “can’t live without” during Thursday’s finale. It was down to two contestants: Theresa Nist and Leslie Fhima.
He ultimately proposed to Nist, a 70-year-old financial services professional who had been married to her late husband, Billy, for more than 40 years, beginning when she was 18 years old.
Turner said during the episode he asked his late wife, Toni, if this was the right thing to do, and he felt confident it would be OK. He and Toni were married for 43 years, before she unexpectedly died from an infection a month after they closed on their “dream” retirement home.
Nist said during the episode she thinks Toni and Billy would be happy for them. “I know how sometimes it feels like the whole world thinks that love is only for the young and, quite honestly, at the age of 70, I was beginning to feel that myself,” she told him before the proposal. “After Billy died, I was at the point where I thought I’m going to live the rest of my life alone, until I met you.”
The show had a live component to it, with past contestants and fans watching along. Host Jesse Palmer interviewed Fhima mid-episode about her experience during the finale, shortly after the episode showed Turner tell her the night before the rose ceremony that he had fallen in love with Nist. “I had this whole life planned for us,” Fhima told Palmer. She later said she had picked out her dress and written her vows.
During the live conversation between Fhima and Turner, she echoed what other contestants have said in the past: that she didn’t know she could love again, and this experience had shown her otherwise. Some of the previous contestants had been married multiple times, and others were in decades-long marriages that ended when their spouses died.
See: ‘The Golden Bachelor’ premieres: ‘How lucky would I be to find a second true love in my lifetime?’
During the live conversation, Palmer also asked Nist and Turner what they had to say to viewers who thought there might be an age limit on love. “If you’re 40, 50, 60 or 90, even if you have one day left to live, if you have love to give, do it.”
Turner was the center of attention on Wednesday, after an exclusive article by the Hollywood Reporter said Turner lied on the show about his dating history. According to the report, he dated numerous women since his wife’s death, and dated one woman for at least three years.
An “Entertainment Tonight” report following up on the bombshell said Turner was open about his dating past with the contestants, citing an unnamed source.
The pair are set to wed on Jan. 4 during a live ceremony on ABC.
