The Golden Bachelor runner-up Leslie Fhima has opened up about the difficult moment when she realized Gerry Turner was on the verge of breaking up with her in Costa Rica.
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Gerry broke up with Leslie and crushed her heart in her hotel room in Costa Rica, ahead of the Final Rose Ceremony.
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Gerry didn't make Leslie put on a beautiful dress and get all dolled up just to get rejected in a formal setting at the Final Rose Ceremony, but that's the only positive Leslie could take away from her brutal dumping.
Leslie recalled the moment she knew it was over for her and Gerry during the December 5 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
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"When I heard the knock on the door, I knew," Gerry told the podcast's co-hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
Leslie was referring to the moment after her final date of the season with Gerry, when Gerry left her hotel room in tears only to suddenly return minutes later and knock on her hotel door.
"I knew that this was it. It's happened before on the show, and I just knew that [it was over]," explained Leslie, who has been a fan of The Bachelor franchise ever since conception.
"It wasn't like I was going to open the door and he'd be like, 'I love you so much.' I just knew."
Leslie acknowledged, however, that her women's intuition had kicked in earlier that day and she had a feeling Gerry was going to select Theresa Nist as his winner.
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"That's why I was crying when he left [my hotel the first time], because what he did, before he left, was put his head on my shoulder and started sobbing," Leslie recalled. "And I just knew [even then]. So when I opened the door, I was [already] crying."
Leslie revealed that just "a few days before that" she was 100 percent confident that she was "The One" and Gerry's choice.
"So for him to be that emotional..." Leslie began.
"You knew it wasn't a good sign," Serena interjected.
"Yeah," Leslie confirmed.
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Leslie also pointed out how she could tell something was "off" with Gerry after she had met his family. While she was on Cloud 9 and thought his kids and grandchildren were amazing, Gerry seemingly wanted to cut their alone time short, and he asked for a hug goodbye rather than a kiss.
Gerry then carried that attitude, a sense of being shutdown emotionally, into his last date of the season with Leslie in her hotel room.
When Gerry dumped Leslie in Costa Rica, he didn't tiptoe around her feelings or insecurities of never being chosen by a man.
"It's been very difficult and I've made a decision about how I want to go about this, and I have fallen in love with Theresa, and that's the direction I'm going to take," Gerry explained to Leslie very matter-of-factly.
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In the heat of the moment, Leslie reflected on her Fantasy Suite with Gerry and told him in reply, "So everything you told me the other night was a lie!"
"No, it wasn't a lie," The Golden Bachelor star insisted.
"Yeah it was," Leslie clapped back. "Everything you told me the other night was a lie. Everything you told me the other night was a complete and utter lie!"
"No," Gerry argued. "Because at that time, that was the truth. Things have changed and things have evolved."
Leslie asked Gerry where she or they had gone wrong, and The Golden Bachelor star assured her that nothing was wrong.
"You're both wonderful, but only one of you is right," Gerry explained. "Leslie, I'm so sorry. Had I known this was the pain I would cause someone, I would've never taken the first step of this journey."
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Leslie cried about how she felt totally heartbroken, and she was embarrassed that her emotional breakdown was going to air for everyone in the world to see.
"You didn't choose me... The other night, you made it sound like you chose me!" Leslie lamented to Gerry, adding, "You said things to me that made me think this was going to be it. You led me down a path and then you took a turn and you left me there!"
Leslie said it was actually "mind boggling" how Gerry could tell her that he loved her and then completely change his mind just 12 hours later.
Leslie explained to The Golden Bachelor host Jesse Palmer on After the Final Rose how she had envisioned a life with Gerry after the show in which they'd walk his dog together and go out to restaurants, both in Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
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Once Gerry learned how devastated and crushed Leslie was, he acknowledged that he's only human and could've handled things in a better way.
"I don't know if I accept your apology, but I understand it," Leslie concluded.
Gerry, meanwhile, is still happily engaged to Theresa, and the couple is planning a January 4, 2024 wedding. They also intend to move to South Carolina together.
But Gerry has come under fire 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 essentially had no 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.
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