The Golden Bachelor runner-up Leslie Fhima has revealed if she's ready to date again and what she's looking for in her next partner after her failed relationship with Gerry Turner.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gerry broke Leslie's heart on The Golden Bachelor and left her sobbing, insecure, and looking for answers after their split, but now Gerry is happily engaged to Theresa Nist and Leslie is ready to move on with her life.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Leslie talked about potentially getting back into the dating scene during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Bachelor in Paradise couple Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
"I have not thought about [dating again]. It hasn't worked out in the past. I don't know if it's the town I live in, I don't know what it is," shared the 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis, MN.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I'm really focused on my work and my kids and my grandkids, so sometimes, if I go on a date, I'm sitting there thinking, 'I'd rather be with my kids... and my grandkids.' I have to maybe get out of that mode."
Leslie said that's why signing up for The Golden Bachelor was "good" for her. After all, her phone was taken away and she wasn't allowed to communicate with her loved ones at home during filming.
"I got to focus on Gerry," Leslie acknowledged.
Since Leslie was crushed and devastated on national television, she admitted it's "a really good question" of whether she can be open and vulnerable again with a man.
As for what she's looking for in her future boyfriend or husband, Leslie insisted she's never going to settle.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I'm not going to lower my standards, but I'm also not going to be so picky," Leslie said.
"I snowboard, I surf, I do all these things. I don't need to find someone who does all those things with me. I love Broadway shows, but I don't need someone to go to Broadway shows with me because I have my girlfriends."
Leslie therefore concluded that she just wants to find a good man with whom to spend her time.
"I just really want, at this stage of my life -- I'm going to be 65 [soon] -- I really just want someone to grow old with and that keeps active and can do things with me," Leslie explained.
"But [I just want] to be still together, and... I want someone that makes me laugh and that loves life and someone that has a family, where we can mesh our families together and they really click, and that loves dogs. That's really all I want; I want a companion."
ADVERTISEMENT
On The Golden Bachelor, Leslie claimed Gerry had totally convinced her in the Fantasy Suite that she was The One and they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.
And so when Gerry eliminated Leslie in second place in her hotel room in Costa Rica, she bawled her eyes out and lashed out at Gerry for having misled, lied to, and broken her heart.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
During the live The Golden Bachelor: After the Final Rose special that aired in late November, Leslie wanted to know why Gerry had ultimately picked Theresa Nist over her, but Gerry could only say that Theresa is "right" for him and a better fit for his life.
Leslie therefore questioned Gerry's integrity and declined to accept his apology.
ADVERTISEMENT
Leslie admitted on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast that while she didn't really get the closure she needed from Gerry on After the Final Rose, she was able to close that chapter and look forward to better times.
"He said something about choosing Theresa over me, and I thought that was a little harsh," Leslie noted.
Leslie pointed out how Gerry could've been more empathetic or compassionate in his delivery when explaining how his heart suddenly led him toward Theresa in Costa Rica.
"He could've said that a little bit nicer," Leslie acknowledged, "especially because being chosen is my [insecurity]. But I don't know."
"I know what I signed up for and I know that someone has to go," she added, "I just didn't expect it to be so hard."
But Leslie insisted that she has no regrets from her experience on the show.
"The only thing I would've like to... or I should have said is, 'I THOUGHT you were a man of integrity,' instead of, 'You are a man of integrity,'" Leslie shared on Joe and Serena's podcast.
She continued, "Because at the end of the day, he didn't really have the integrity that I thought he had."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
When asked if she respects Gerry now that their relationship is over and done with, Leslie replied, "I mean, Gerry did what he did, it's his journey. Do I respect him? I just wish he would've done it different."
Leslie admitted of their brutal breakup, "I don't respect what he did."
ADVERTISEMENT
Leslie said she "started" losing respect for Gerry due to the way he hurt his third-place finisher Faith Martin and then it got "a little more" worse for herself considering everything she had to go through in Costa Rica.
"So I feel like he just used, 'I love you,' too much," she noted.
Leslie told Serena and Joe that their question about respecting Gerry was such a hard one to answer.
"Because I want to say I do [respect him], but it's hard. Yeah, he hurt me," Leslie said.
Gerry and Theresa, meanwhile, are planning a January 4, 2024 televised wedding on ABC. They also intend to move to South Carolina together in the near future.
But Gerry has been facing backlash for weeks for allegedly having -- and not being honest on the show or in the press about -- a live-in girlfriend of nearly three years prior to applying for The Golden Bachelor.
Having had a three-year, live-in ex-girlfriend would contradict Gerry's heart-wrenching The Golden Bachelor storyline about being a grieving widower who had little dating experience prior to the show because he was married for 43 years to Toni, who died from a bacterial infection in July 2017.
Gerry has since addressed the allegations against him, and Theresa also broke her silence on the unflattering report about Gerry's alleged secret past.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!