Former The Bachelor star Ben Higgins has reacted to Gerry Turner's multiple love proclamations on The Golden Bachelor.
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After Gerry was shown telling Faith Martin, a 60-year-old high school teacher from Benton City, WA, and Leslie Fhima, a 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis, MN, that he loved them, Ben took the opportunity to make a lighthearted joke.
"Uh oh. Gerry pulled a Ben Higgins. #GoldenBachelor @benhiggi," a woman tweeted.
Ben replied to the comment, "He is an Indiana boy... those Indiana boys have a lot of love to give #GoldenBachelor," referring to how he and Gerry are from the same state.
Gerry currently has three women in the running for his heart on The Golden Bachelor: Faith, Leslie and Theresa Nist, a 69-year-old financial services professional from Shrewsbury, NJ.
While Gerry didn't say, "I love you," to Theresa, he confessed to the cameras that he was in fact "in love" with all three women.
During the women's hometown dates, Gerry appeared to get wrapped up in the moment, and he simply couldn't hide his feelings.
The Golden Bachelor star told Faith right in front of her kids and grandkids, "Would you say it out loud?"
"I would say it out loud," Faith replied.
"I love you," Gerry declared.
"I love you, too," Faith responded.
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And then after Gerry met Leslie's family, Leslie told The Golden Bachelor star, "I told you that I was falling in love with you, but after today and seeing you with my family, I'm not falling -- I am in love with you. I'm crazy about you, and I just can't imagine right now my life without you."
Gerry told the cameras that sitting with Leslie, he felt like she was his "person" and that she could maybe be his "future wife."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Gerry therefore shared with Leslie, "A wise man told me, 'Don't walk by an opportunity to tell someone that you love them when you love them.' And Leslie, I love you. I love you."
Gerry proceeded to admit before the Rose Ceremony, "I'm in love with three women, and I'm so confused about which direction I'm going to go... I look at them and I feel equally attracted, and equally as connected... I am in an impossible situation right now."
Prior to the Rose Ceremony -- which featured Gerry handing out only one rose to Leslie before breaking down into tears -- even The Golden Bachelor host Jesse Palmer appeared shocked by Gerry's professions of love to more than one woman.
Multiple love proclamations have proven to be perilous to prior The Bachelor stars and damaged their post-show relationship with their winning bachelorette -- most memorably with Ben.
Ben surprisingly professed his love for JoJo, his runner-up on The Bachelor's 20th season, before he proposed marriage to Lauren.
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Lauren and Ben ended up announcing their break up in May 2017 after a little over a year together.
Afterward, Lauren admitted Ben's public profession that he had also been in love with JoJo significantly damaged her relationship with Ben.
"I don't think I've ever talked about how hurtful that was," Lauren told People magazine.
Even though Lauren had received Ben's final rose and an engagement ring, she worried a part of his heart still belonged to JoJo.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
"I always try to be really strong because I wanted to move forward from it," Lauren said.
"But because I wanted to move forward from it, I don't think I ever really opened up about how hard that was just in terms of, like, I wanted to make that decision to get engaged one time in my life and I felt like I wasn't told everything that had happened."
Lauren apparently felt blindsided by how torn Ben's heart really was prior to getting engaged. She said JoJo, on the other hand, had received a warning from Ben about his strong feelings for two women at the time of filming.
"I know that JoJo was told what had happened. I almost felt a little bit betrayed," Lauren explained. "That was really hard, but we moved forward from that."
According to Lauren, seeing Ben's multiple love proclamations finally air on ABC months after filming had ended also compounded the issue for her.
"When The Bachelor aired, reliving that months later wasn't ideal either," Lauren told People.
"I was still like, 'We're going to move forward from this,' but then the press, that's what everybody wanted to talk about. I've never shared with anyone, except for Ben, how hurtful that situation was and how hard it is to continually talk about it over and over again when you're trying to start a life with someone."
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JoJo vented about how much Ben had hurt her, and she gushed about how she wanted a man similar to him.
JoJo's history with Ben was finally put to rest when Jordan Rodgers proposed to JoJo at the end of her The Bachelorette season.
JoJo and Jordan eventually married in May 2022.
"It felt at the time like the right thing to do. It was validating," Ben, who is now married to a woman outside of Bachelor Nation, Jess Clarke, told Us Weekly in March 2021.
"Now it feels like it was manipulating as well, because it just made me feel a little bit better about making sure they both knew where I was at. So, I probably could have been wiser not saying it."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
