In the emotionally charged finale of “The Golden Bachelor,” 72-year-old retired Indiana restaurateur Gerry Turner proposed to a woman who was not Minneapolis fitness instructor Leslie Fhima. And Fhima was clearly crushed.
“You made it sound like you chose me,” she said between sobs. “You led me down a path and then you took a turn and left me there. It’s mindboggling, to be honest, how you can talk to me all night, say you love and then one day — not even a day, 12 hours later – you’d change your mind. I poured my heart out. I fell in love with you.”
The episode, which aired Thursday night on ABC, took place at a resort in Costa Rica, after Turner went on overnight dates with 64-year-old Fhima and 70-year-old New Jersey financial services professional Theresa Nist. (At the end of the finale, which was half prerecorded material and half live-in-studio, host Jesse Palmer announced Turner and Nist were going to get married on Jan. 4, with the ceremony broadcast live on ABC.)
Turner first invited Nist to meet his two daughters and two granddaughters and the family visit went well, as did their subsequent final date.
Then it was Fhima’s turn do the same. Turner told the camera “we kind of get lost in each other” and Fhima also hit it off with his family. Fhima said during their overnight stay, Turner had used an expletive, which was a relief. “Oh great, I can swear in front of him,” she said with a laugh. His response: “I want to clarify the word had an exclamation point, not a question mark.”
Fhima said she’s never felt love like this before and that most of the time, things don’t go her way in relationships. (She’s been married twice, including to prominent Twin Cities restaurateur David Fhima, and dated Prince at one point.) “He’s the man of dreams,” she said. “He’s so special and an amazing person. He makes me so happy.”
But by the end of the family meeting, Fhima said she could tell something was off with Turner: “I feel like I can read Gerry by now and I could tell he wasn’t himself.”
The mood changed drastically during their date, which opened with Fhima bringing up that tension. Turner apologized and they had a toast, but as they sat together it became clear he had already made his decision. Fhima gave him a book filled with photos of their time together on the show, with “plenty of empty pages in the back” they would fill with their future memories together.
“It’s been so much fun,” she said. “Meeting you has been a blessing in so many ways. I can’t imagine being without you.”
When he greeted that with a grimace on his face, it was clear to Fhima and anyone watching that he did not choose her. She began crying and he said he thought it was time for him to go. She asked if he had something to tell her and he shook his head.
Turner then sat down on some steps in the hallway and began crying himself. He returned to Fhima’s room and told her he had fallen in love with Nist. “Everything you told me the other night was a complete and utter lie,” Fhima said in a voice full of hurt. “I knew the minute I saw you today. We weren’t off. You were off.
“This is typical in my life,” Fhima continued. “This is how it goes.”
Turner told her, no, don’t think like that. “No offense, but I can think whatever the f— I want,” Fhima shot back as the live audience watching the footage cheered. “My heart was broken once again, but now I have to do it in front of the whole world to see. Once again, how broken I am, how no one chooses me, they didn’t choose me once again.”
After Turner apologized and said he wishes there was something he could say, she responded: “There’s nothing you can say or do to make me feel better.”
The show then moved to the live audience, with Palmer interviewing Fhima onstage. She said watching the footage brought up the same bad memories. “I was unapologetically myself through this whole thing,” Fhima said. “I was vulnerable. I wore my heart on my sleeve. I broke down my walls and I fell in love with him so much. I haven’t fallen in love with someone for a really long time, so it was hard.”
The chat continued when Palmer invited Turner to join the interview. He apologized to Fhima, who said: “Well, I don’t know if I accept your apology, but I understand it. I’m not angry, I’m just hurt.”
Fhima may have dodged a bullet. Wednesday, the Hollywood Reporter dropped a bombshell expose of Turner that painted him as something quite different than the solitary, heartbroken widower on display in front of cameras. Despite his suggestions that he’s been alone since his wife’s death in 2017, the story includes quotes from an anonymous woman who said she had a nearly three-year relationship with him and lived with him for a year and nine months. He charged her $850 rent each month and split the cost of all meals, the woman claimed, and insisted she made the bed before breakfast.
It is possible Fhima could return to the airwaves. “The Golden Bachelor” has earned the strongest ratings in two years across the “Bachelor” franchise and the fan-favorite Fhima may very well be asked to star in the inevitable, if not yet officially announced, “The Golden Bachelorette.”
“I just love the group of women on Gerry’s season,” host Palmer told “Entertainment Tonight“. “I can’t single one out specifically. I think there’s a number that would be phenomenal Golden Bachelorettes.”
