71-year-old Gerry Turner will star in the upcoming “The Golden Bachelor” reality dating show, but said before filming he wondered what his late wife would have thought of him appearing on the program.
Guesting on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, Turner talked about how he was married to his high school sweetheart for 43 years. She passed away in 2017. When the hosts asked what his wife would think of his new starring role, he said she’d be “very pleased.”
“I have a picture of her in my walk-in closet. Every night I’m in there and I see her picture. It’s the only one now that I have in the house,” he said. “And in the mornings, I see her picture and, you know, we talk. I’ll make a brief comment or sometimes that talk is silent.”
Turner said he’s been on dates since his wife’s death, but is still searching for “the one.”
"I think she's probably seen me fail at a number of attempted relationships and dating, and I really think she would approve of this. It's positive, it's energetic, it's a way of communicating and finding the connection with a number of people, but specifically one special person," he told the podcast.
Turner is a former restaurateur and the father of two daughters and grandfather to two. He said they’re all “over-the-top supportive of this.”
“The Golden Bachelor” will air this fall on ABC.