The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has revealed heartbreaking new details about his wife Toni Turner's death, which caused him to get very emotional.
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But Gerry will be searching for the second love of his life after experienced a traumatic loss.
"I married my high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1972. We had 43 wonderful years together. We have two daughters, and I now have two wonderful granddaughters," Gerry revealed on The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All for Charity Lawson's season.
"We had a real typical but beautiful life, full of love and full of activity. And as years went on, I retired and we had a plan. We had an idea of what our dream house was going to be."
So once Toni retired at the end of May in 2017, the couple bought their dream house -- a two-story home with a big porch on a lake.
"We closed on it on June 6, [2017]. From June 6 on, it didn't go according to plan at all," Gerry recalled.
"Toni became ill, and her situation got worse over a couple of weeks."
Gerry then broke down crying as he revealed, "And so we went to the emergency room and she had a bacterial infection that infected her kidneys, and it affected her liver."
"And so I took my wife to the emergency room on July 7, and she passed away on July 15."
Gerry said every time he gazes out at the lake from their house, he thinks, "This is her dream. This is what she deserves. Why am I standing here alone?"
Gerry said it's been six years since Toni passed away and no one is "every going to replace" her.
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"But the love of my daughters and my granddaughters pulled me out of a dark spot," Gerry said.
The Golden Bachelor -- who also has a beautiful dog -- shared how his celebrity crush is actress Helen Mirren.
"I really want to find love. I really want to find my person, someone who can put me in my place when I need it and make me smile at it," Gerry explained.
"[I want a] person who can lay down beside you at night and not have to say anything -- but you feel it. That's love. That's what I want, and I know that person is out there."
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Gerry proceeded to tell viewers what he was "most looking for" on Night 1 in his group of women, who have yet to be formally announced by ABC, and it was apparently "that look in their eye" that creates a spark.
He also wants a partner who is sensitive, warm, kind and has a great sense of humor.
The Golden Bachelor then gave couples the following advice: "Look at your spouse every day and tell them you love them, because the day comes too soon for one of you when can't do that. I would give anything to be able to do that one more time."
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Gerry was a high school and college runner, and he previously owned and operated a fast-food restaurant. Gerry eventually sold his business and spent the rest of his career in food distribution.
"I have very little experience in dating," Gerry said with a laugh on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast earlier this summer, considering he was married for so long.
"It's been a tough process for me, I've got to admit," he added.
Gerry also teased on Good Morning America how fans shouldn't "discount" the possibility he may film a wedding special down the road.
An official fall premiere date for The Golden Bachelor will be announced at a later date.
On The Golden Bachelor, Gerry will be given a second chance at love and will search for a partner with whom to share "the sunset years of life," according to ABC.
"The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities. In the end, will our Golden man turn the page to start a new chapter with the woman of his dreams?"
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The Golden Bachelor, which is being produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Warner Horizon, has been in the works for quite some time.
ABC's desire to film a senior edition of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette was first teased in early 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic seemed to delay producers' plans.
However, ABC executive Robert Mills assured fans in May 2022 that the long-mentioned spinoff would eventually come to fruition.
"The senior citizens show is definitely going to happen at some point," Mills told Variety at the time.
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Mills added, "For us, we really feel a responsibility to find the right person to be that senior Bachelor. So, we're looking. COVID obviously put a major wrinkle in everything, but we are really looking back in earnest at it."
Mills hoped The Golden Bachelor would answer the following question: "[If you have] one great love in your lifetime, can you have another?"
Mills called that idea "really interesting" and "not something" producers usually get to explore on The Bachelor franchise.
Mills concluded that "Senior Bachelor" was "really high on" producers' list.
A casting notice for the seniors project had originally appeared online in January 2020, disclosing that "producers of The Bachelor" were looking for single men and women age 65 or older.
However, the casting notice didn't reveal what network was attached to the show or whether it would be an actual spinoff of The Bachelor franchise.
And then a commercial break that aired during Peter Weber's season of The Bachelor in February 2020 featured former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison saying in a voiceover, "Looking for love in your golden years?"
Chris continued, "We're looking for eligible seniors who want their shot at love. To nominate someone or apply, go to abc.com/casting."
Upon visiting the show's casting page at the time, producers called the "exciting" new project a "new dating show for seniors" and were looking for older "active and outgoing single men and women" who were looking "for a committed relationship."
After the episode of Peter's season aired, ABC reality chief Robert Mills tweeted, "#Bachelornation give us your Grumpiest Old Men, give us your Goldenest Girls. #TheBachelor."
"To be clear," he added, "this is [age] 65 [and up]."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
