The Golden Bachelor Controversy Surrounding Gerry Turner, Explained

Millions held their collective breath on November 30, 2023, as 71-year-old Gerry Turner, the first-ever "Golden Bachelor," wrestled with the Big Question: Were his feelings for either Leslie Fhima or Theresa Nist strong enough to lead to a diamond sparkler and a lifetime together? Whatever his decision, Turner showed the world true love can happen at any age (it can also be sizzling hot!). 

Yet even as the tears flowed and the drama escalated, some tea was quietly brewing. Though Turner presented himself on the show as a lonely widower who'd waited years to start looking for romance again, The Hollywood Reporter discovered otherwise. The outlet spoke to a woman who offered evidence she had been in a relationship with the Golden Bachelor for nearly three years. 

Turner and the secret girlfriend, identified only by the pseudonym Carolyn, met through the mental health center in Iowa where they both worked. In 2017, Turner left to move to Indiana; sadly, his wife, Toni, died shortly afterward. Just a month later, Turner reached out to Carolyn for help in donating Toni's work outfits to charity, and things moved pretty quickly from there. 

As Carolyn recalled to THR, "Until I went back and looked at my text messages, I never realized Gerry's texts had turned hot and heavy so relatively soon." After a year of long commutes to be with her boyfriend (who was 14 years older), Carolyn uprooted her life to live in Gerry Turner's Indiana lake house. While the smooth septuagenarian wined and dined his potential spouses on "The Golden Bachelor," Turner's reported ex claims her life with him was less swoon-worthy. 

After Carolyn moved in with him, their relationship quickly shifted. She was expected to pay $850 a month for expenses and to split the check whenever they dined out. In one unsettling incident, Carolyn asserted that the future Bachelor changed his mind about taking her to his high school reunion because she had gained a few pounds, which was the beginning of the end for them. The popularity of "Golden Bachelor" led Carolyn to speak publicly about her time with Turner, worried she might get a rep as the one who got away — or the one who was dumped. 

She also wants the world to know that many of the sweet nothings Turner offered to his dates were just rehashes of stuff he'd told her years before. For instance, he gave similar lines to both Carolyn and finalist Leslie Fhima about wanting to be with them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Susan McCreary, a friend of Carolyn's, also admitted to being shocked hearing Turner lie on the show about never having kissed another woman since becoming a widower. 

Gerry Turner ultimately decided that Theresa Nist was his second chance at true love, and his proposal in Costa Rica was the stuff of fairytales (this must have come as a surprise to the matchmaker who predicted the frontrunner would be Leslie Fhima). The newly engaged couple made their first public appearance on the live finale, beaming and holding hands. But as Bachelor Nation knows, the franchise hasn't had the best track record. Many a pairing has split up before reaching the altar, once the cameras are off and they have to face real life together.

Now that Turner's alleged dating history has been revealed, he's got a lot of explaining to do. Along with the THR bombshell, another supposed friend of Turner's clarified to The U.S. Sun that he "dated a couple of women" in addition to Carolyn before trying out for the reality show. "They weren't long-term, but they weren't short-term either," Heather Lanning, a pal from Turner's Indiana neighborhood, claimed. She added that Turner wasn't actively looking to meet anyone, but women still came his way through mutual friends or at the bar where Lanning works.

Smitten as she seems, Nist still has to come to terms with her fiancé's past and his apparent lack of transparency. Part of his appeal on "The Golden Bachelor" was Turner not having dated anyone seriously since his wife died. Can she forgive him and become the new Mrs. Turner, or will she call it off and be a Golden Bachelorette?