Warning: This story contains spoilers for “The Golden Bachelor.”
"The Golden Bachelor" went from a cast of 22 to two finalists. Gerry Turner has told both Theresa Nist and Leslie Fhima that he loved them.
But who wins? The finale of the inaugural season of "The Golden Bachelor" was a nail-biter, as the Indiana-based widower ultimately picked a winner.
After introducing the frontrunners to his daughters and granddaughters, Gerry admitted he was struggling with the process. Leslie said she intuited a change in him.
Gerry said the "stress and pressure" of making a "decision that is life-changing" was getting to him. Leslie said, "I don't know how you do it. I'm only concentrating on you. You have two of us."
He celebrated their first "down dip" as a couple, but then cut the date short, saying it was "time for him to go."
Before Gerry picked a winner, he had a devastating breakup
Gerry decided to break the finale mold.
Rather than conduct a breakup at the rose ceremony, he did so privately. After leaving his date with Leslie and crying for a while, he returned. She cried, too, as if she knew what was coming next.
"When you left, you asked me if there was something to say to you," Gerry said.
He said he "made a decision about how I want to go about this."
"I have fallen in love with Theresa," Gerry said. "That's the direction I'm going to go in."
Leslie responds by saying she felt everything Gerry had told her previously was "a lie."
"You both are wonderful but only one of you is right," Gerry said of his decision.
Leslie wept while Gerry held her.
“Now I'm heartbroken in front of the whole world. You didn’t choose me once again ... you said things to me that made me seem like it was going to be it," she said, crying.
She called his behavior and the short time he took to change his mind "mind-boggling."
Gerry said he was "not OK" after the breakup.
"I took a good person and I broke their heart. I hate myself and I hate everything. The only time I felt worse was when my wife passed away and this is a close goddamn second," he said. "It isn't worth all of this?"
Here's who Gerry picks
Gerry ultimately proposes to Theresa. Ahead of the proposal, he spoke of her with love.
"She is a wonderful woman. She's charming and so affectionate. She's smart, perceptive and intuitive. Someone to share the joy and the sorrow. I love her and I know she loves me," he said.
During his proposal, he seemed to stage a fake out when he said, "You're not the right person for me to live with ..."
She seemed dismayed, if he was about to break up with her. Then he said, "You're the person I can't live without."
"That was so good!" she said, taking the joke immediately.
The two said "I love you" and embraced, before Gerry gave her his golden rose — one that will never wilt, he said.