The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has revealed he actually told Theresa Nist that she was his winner and he was going to propose marriage to her during their overnight Fantasy Suite date.
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Walking into the Final Rose Ceremony in Costa Rica, Theresa told The Golden Bachelor cameras that she wasn't sure if Gerry was going to pick her or Leslie Fhima -- or if Gerry was going to end the process as an engaged man.
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But, according to Gerry, Theresa was well aware that she was his final pick and future fiancee at that point.
In a joint post-finale interview with Theresa, Gerry shared that he made his mind up about Theresa being The One for him in the Fantasy Suite because she was finally vulnerable and showed her true self off-camera.
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"Excitedly, I said to her, 'I love you. I love you. I love you. And I'm going to ask you to marry me! I don't know if you're going to say yes, but I am going to ask!'" Gerry told Access Hollywood.
Gerry shared how he felt "a total excitement" in being so frank with Theresa about his desire to be with her and have a future together.
But Gerry didn't officially propose marriage to Theresa until the Final Rose Ceremony, when they were both standing on a platform in their fancy attire surrounded by a beautiful green landscape.
Gerry recalled of his final-rose speech to Theresa on the platform, "I kind of said it wrong."
He elaborated, "The line was supposed to be, 'You're not the person that I can live with.' I said, 'You're not the person for me.' It was awful! And so I tried to recoup quickly, and the pause on the show is longer than the actual pause, because I quickly said, 'You're the person I can't live without.'"
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Theresa, however, said the pause felt as long as it looked on TV and she was on the verge of fainting.
Gerry selected Theresa as his winner after he broke up with his runner-up bachelorette, Leslie, in her hotel room in Costa Rica.
Leslie was admittedly shocked and blindsided, and she felt totally betrayed and lied to by Gerry.
Leslie had been under the impression that Gerry was definitely -- and without a shadow of doubt -- going to choose her. In fact, she claimed Gerry had convinced her behind closed doors that they were going to end up together.
"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 "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast after The Golden Bachelor finale aired.
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Leslie explained how Gerry had given her the utmost confidence about the future of their relationship, even though he didn't mention wanting to pop the question to her.
"[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."
The 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis, MN, vented about how she "would've been happy with" a simple, "I love you" from Gerry.
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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 Gerry allegedly made it seem like she had the competition in the bag.
"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.
She added, "And 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."
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Gerry shared why he came to view Theresa as his match during a recent chat with the Los Angeles Times.
"The criteria I had looked for in a perfect partner included a few things, including the ability to make me calm when I got excited. In my first one-on-one date with Theresa, you saw how well she made me calm," Gerry said.
"One of the other things I realized with the passage of time was finding someone who would make me a better person. She has done that. She makes me smile... [And] sense of humor is really fantastic. It's very dry."
Gerry also called Theresa "a strong person" and noted how she's "no one's pushover."
He added, "Her ability to match my personality was also a huge factor. We just make a perfect pair. We're better as a couple than we are individually."
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Gerry and Theresa are now looking forward to their wedding on January 4, 2024, which will be televised on ABC. They are also planning to move to South Carolina together.
"There's a lot of relief, a lot of anticipation about what's going to happen in the future, now that we can openly talk and plan things together," Gerry told the LA Times.
On The Golden Bachelor season, Gerry and Theresa were able to understand and relate to each other on a deep level when discussing loss and past trauma.
Gerry's wife, Toni, had passed away in 2017 from a bacterial infection after 43 years of marriage. And Theresa lost her husband, Billy, in 2014 from kidney failure after 42 years of marriage.
Gerry ultimately told Theresa that she's the "right" woman for him and he realize at the end of filming The Golden Bachelor that he can't live without her.
Gerry, however, has come under fire recently 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.
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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