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For those concerned that ABC's Golden Bachelor showed a bit more heart and less artificiality than its flagship Bachelor and Bachelorette series it spun off from, rest assured that leading man Gerry Turner has some dirty laundry in his closet as well!
The Hollywood Reporter revealed in an elaborate exposé last week that his relationship history was presented as less than fully transparent on the hit septuagenarian reality show. The version of “Golden Gerry” presented on the show was that of a wholesome sweetheart ready to find love for the first time since his wife Toni of 43 years passed away about six years ago.
He told Entertainment Tonight in promotion for the show that “I haven't dated in 45 years,” a theme echoed repeatedly throughout the Golden Bachelor as well. However, the Hollywood Reporter piece alleges that prior to appearing on the show, Turner had a relationship with a woman the article refers to as Carolyn (the woman requested not to use her actual name to protect her privacy).
Apparently Turner and the woman dated for 10 months, and then lived together for one year and nine months. The Hollywood Reporter arrived at these numbers after interviewing Carolyn, in addition to friends she confided in around this time and text messages with Turner, including other documents.
The relationship took place after his wife's death but certainly contradicts the character he presents of himself on the show, which is part of what led Carolyn to speak up. As the article explains, “Carolyn… didn’t want the years of her life as the Golden Bachelor’s girlfriend to become national news fodder. But neither did she want to be the ‘invisible woman,' whispered about in Davenport as the gullible gal Gerry duped and then dumped.”
A close friend of Carolyn's, Susan McCreary, weighed in. “I just can’t believe this has happened to my girlfriend. When Carolyn and Gerry first started dating [in September 2017], my husband and I took them to an Iowa [Hawkeyes] football game,” said McCreary. “I thought, ‘This guy’s legit. This guy’s a really good guy for her.'”
McCreary further elaborated that she “recalled watching the show and hearing Gerry say that line about not having been kissed in six years. ‘And I’m like, what? He’s got to know that people are paying attention to this show. I’m just flabbergasted.'”
Apparently Turner even used some of the same pickup lines on Carolyn that we saw him use on the show. Carolyn showed the Hollywood Reporter a text Turner sent to her in September 2017 that read, “Damn, I go to bed at night thinking of you and wake up in the morning thinking of you.” (The text also happened to be sent less than three months after his wife Toni’s death.)
On the show, Turner told one of his two eventual finalists, Leslie, during a romantic moment in Costa Rica, “I have to have you with my morning coffee, I have to have you when I go to bed at night …”
Further, a local waitress at an eatery Gerry frequents said Carolyn wasn't the only woman he had dated since his wife's death. The waitress, Heather Lanning-Adams, told the U.S. Sun that “He dated a couple of women. They weren’t all long-term, but they … weren’t short-term either. … He was with a couple of women for a decent amount of time, but it just didn’t work out.”
Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner may have given off an “aw shucks” good guy vibe to start the series, but the dirty laundry sure is flapping around on the clothesline now. Just how this will affect the big live ABC January 4th wedding special remains to be seen, but here's betting the producers will find some way to weave in a bit of the last-minute drama. If this causes a relationship rift, sounds like Gerry might be better suited for Golden Bachelor in Paradise.
