Gerry Turner is ready to welcome a Golden Bachelorette!
After filming Thursday’s Women Tell All special, the current Golden Bachelor lead, 74, told he would be “wholeheartedly in favor” of a female spinoff of the ABC dating show.
“I have no say in it, just to be clear, but I think it would be exciting because it’s going to continue the theme that we’ve started of being hopeful and being visible at our age,” he added. “So hopefully it happens.”
However, the 72-year-old retired restaurateur refrained from picking favorites for the role among the women who vied for his heart on the first season of The Golden Bachelor.
“There’s 22 women that stand out. I absolutely would not be able to single one out,” he shared. “Each one of them has a certain personality that would make a show interesting and charm, and they’re all intelligent, so there’s no bad choice.”
Faith Martin — who was shockingly eliminated during Thursday’s episode — wasn’t shy about throwing her hat in the ring for the coveted position after falling for Gerry while filming.
“I really do believe in the process,” Faith shared. “I feel like I’ve seen it work and I lived it. I know that in such a short time, you can have those kind of feelings, and I trust these producers.”
“It’s like they’re matchmaking gods or something because how do they put so many people in a situation where they are compatible and can find those feelings and actually find love on their shows?” she continued. “I mean, they’re really good at what they do. So I would’ve never believed that the process could work, but it does.”
“So I think they should continue to do it with this age group, because I think that gives people hope. I think it’s really fun to watch, and I would definitely be into doing something like that,” she added.
When asked if he had guidance for Faith if she became The Golden Bachelorette, Gerry shared, “I don’t think Faith needs any advice from me. I really don’t. She’s got her act together. She knows what she wants. She knows what she can and can’t do. Yeah, she doesn’t need advice from me.”
Faith also opened up about the emotional toll of saying goodbye to Gerry.
“For about three and a half weeks, I didn’t feel like a human,” she admitted. “I seriously felt like my left brain and my right brain were not aligning. In my logical brain, I could understand the way things played out, but in my heart I felt like a shattered emotional wreck.”
“So just getting those two to realign and getting back into the real world was very difficult for me,” she added. “Thank goodness, I feel like the support that I’ve had from the crew, and the producers, and the people that are so incredibly supportive that you feel loved and cared about after, and so it’s been so beautiful. It’s been such an amazing experience and unlike anything other. Total life-changing event for me for positive.”
Faith shared that her perspective on love shifted after meeting Gerry for the first time, explaining, “I feel like from the minute I met Gerry, I had a different perception of what I would want in a relationship moving forward in my life, whether it was with Gerry or anybody else.”
“And it took him to kind of break down my walls and to make me realize that,” she added. “So it was huge. And then getting deeper and deeper into it, knowing that the risk was great. That was a big step for me because I, probably in any other circumstance, would not have said the things I did and put myself so far out there knowing that the risk was that big.”
The Golden Bachelor airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
