ABC Gerry Turner's good guy image ousted by The Hollywood Reporter.
Gerry Turner is the first-ever “Golden Bachelor.” Many fans have fallen in love with the franchise twist of a widow looking for a second chance at love in his 70s, and his heartwarming story has been a major win for the network when it comes to ratings.
Turner has been portrayed as such a wholesome guy. The man is said to live a quiet life in Indiana after his wife, Toni, died in 2017. He’s been pegged as a family man who worked hard his whole life and who has been inactive in his romantic pursuits since the death of Toni.
However, on November 29, 2023, The Hollywood Reporter published a bombshell article about Turner that separates reality from reality TV. The information was posted just one day ahead of the highly anticipated season finale, which is set to air on November 30, 2023, at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Turner’s final two women are Theresa Nist and Leslie Fhima.
Here’s what you need to know:
Gerry Turner Hasn’t Been in the Restaurant Business Since the ’80s & He Lived With a Woman After His Wife Died
Turner’s bio on ABC’s website says he’s a “retired restaurateur.”
However, according to THR, Turner hasn’t been in the restaurant business since 1985, when he sold a “Mr. Quick hamburger drive-in franchise.”
And while ABC has framed Turner as a guy who retired in his 50s, he has worked for various companies since, THR reported. “Installing hot tubs at Gannon Pools” and working as a “maintenance man at the Vera French Mental Health Center” are two of the jobs mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter.
The outlet reported new information about Turner’s dating life. About a month after Toni’s death, Turner started dating a woman who was 14 years younger than him — and the two carried on a relationship for three years, THR reported. For more than half the time they dated, they lived together.
Turner hasn’t talked about this relationship on his season of “The Golden Bachelor.”
Turner had previously disclosed that he had dated other women following the death of his wife, but nothing quite as extensive as what THR has reported.
Fans on Reddit Are Reacting to the Report
Shortly after The Hollywood Reporter published the news about Turner, dozens of fans took to Reddit to react.
“Whoa, this is the tea we’ve been waiting for. I knew that aw shucks persona was fake,” one person wrote.
“This is no joke. I imagine the producers knew all of this before. They molded him to how they wanted and now they are hitting payday because of it. At the end of the day what we are seeing is a soap opera. Nothing more, nothing less,” someone else added.
“Ooof. I knew Gerry couldn’t possibly be a saint, but this makes him sound genuinely terrible and like whoever he didn’t pick dodged a major bullet. It also puts a different light on him getting so excited to hear about Theresa’s trading success,” read a third comment.
“Now THIS is freaking amazing!! I live near the Davenport/Quad Cities area. I’ve called him performative since day one! Nice to see he isn’t quite as ‘pure’ as they’d have us believe. He really is just a normal person, too bad they changed his narrative so much,” a fourth Redditor said.
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