The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has revealed if he has any regrets about how he handled his relationship -- and ultimate breakup -- with Leslie Fhima, his season's runner-up.
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"Throughout the course of the whole journey, I would give each woman 100 percent of myself when I was with them. I didn't want to leave any stone unturned. I wanted to be completely open."
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Gerry devastated and crushed Leslie's heart when he eliminated her in second place on The Golden Bachelor in favor of his winner, Theresa Nist, to whom he ultimately proposed marriage at the Final Rose Ceremony in Costa Rica.
Leslie cried and sobbed at the time of her ouster because she had no doubt in her mind and heart that Gerry was going to pick her, and she very clearly felt betrayed, misled and lied to.
Leslie told Gerry on ABC's After the Final Rose broadcast, which aired on November 30, "Only you and I know what was said on the overnight. I'd never share that with anyone; it was our private time. But those words gave me 100 percent certainty that I was your girl and we were going to get engaged."
But Gerry suggested to Katie Couric that his choice to compartmentalize -- and not compare or contrast -- all of his relationships with the women allowed him to develop feelings of love and admiration for more than one person.
Gerry explained that on any given day or date with a woman, he'd "package that up, set it aside, and then go to the next."
The Golden Bachelor star elaborated, "And in the moments with Leslie, as it was with [Faith Martin], I was committed to them and was listening to what they had to say, and I had strong feelings for them."
Gerry had actually said, "I love you," to all of his Final 3 bachelorettes: Theresa, Leslie and Faith.
When Gerry had sent Faith packing in third place, she was utterly shocked and distraught.
"So when I expressed love for them, in those moments, it was legit," Gerry reiterated.
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"It was completely legit until the moment I realized that there was a woman for me there that was the person I couldn't live without."
And that person was Theresa, even though Leslie apparently had every reason to believe she was going to be the one to end up with Gerry.
Leslie dropped tidbits about what Gerry had told her behind closed doors in the Fantasy Suite during the December 4 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
"I don't want to say everything that he said, but it was 100 percent certainty when I woke up the next morning that I was going to be it," Leslie told the podcast's co-hosts, Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
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Joe pointed out how Gerry has said in post-show press interviews that he basically let Theresa know in the Fantasy Suite he had picked her and was going to proposed marriage to her well before the Final Rose Ceremony.
"[Did he] propose to me? Well, he made plans with me for the future. He said, kind of like, 'Save the date. This is what we're going to do. I can't wait for us -- just two more days and we'll be done with this,'" Leslie recalled.
"[Gerry said], 'We'll be together and start our life.' Did he say in there, 'Will you marry me?' No. But he all BUT said that."
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"But he took it to a different level," Leslie claimed.
"And when we woke up the next morning and he left, he turned around three times and blew me kisses. He didn't want to leave, and that's why I wasn't worried that he was going on a date! I just knew that he had to get through the motions of it."
Leslie reiterated how she felt "100 percent sure" that she was "it" for Gerry.
"I mean, he didn't say, 'I have such a hard decision to make.' Nothing like that. So I just didn't think [he'd pick Theresa]," Leslie said.
Serena pointed out to Leslie how viewers had watched Gerry tell Leslie, "I think you're The One," before cameras left the former couple alone in the Fantasy Suite.
"I went and picked out [an expensive] dress and... I wrote my vows, because I was 100 percent certain," Leslie noted.
And she continued, "There were things he said to me in the overnight that alluded to his [next] overnight with Theresa, that it was not going to be the same."
Leslie confessed to Joe and Serena that there was no part of her that thought Gerry was going to lean toward Theresa after having alone time.
"I didn't," Leslie said. "And I don't go through life, like, 'I've got this!' I go through life going, 'I might have it.'"
When Gerry dumped Leslie in her hotel room in Costa Rica before the Final Rose Ceremony, Gerry told her, "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."
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In the heat of the moment, Leslie told Gerry in reply, "So everything you told me the other night was a lie!"
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"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."
Leslie cried about how she was totally heartbroken and was going to be embarrassed in front of the world.
"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 about 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.
"You were the person I believed was my person until I suddenly knew you weren't," The Golden Bachelor star confessed on After the Final Rose.
"It didn't really go wrong, Leslie, it was just better with someone else. It was the right person in another direction, and I'm so terribly sorry. I'll never forgive myself for the pain I've caused along the way."
(Leslie said on "Bachelor Happy Hour" that she thought Gerry's delivery about his relationship being better with someone else was a "harsh" way to put it.)
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"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 has plans to move to South Carolina together. They are also planning a January 4, 2024 wedding.
Gerry, however, has been facing backlash and scrutiny for allegedly lying about having a three-year, live-in girlfriend shortly after his wife, Toni, passed away in 2017.
Gerry has since addressed the allegations against him, and Theresa has also broken her silence on the unflattering report.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
