In a new interview, the 72-year-old responds to allegations that he misrepresented his career as a former restaurant owner on the spin-off of ABC's 'The Bachelor'.
- Dec 4, 2023
AceShowbiz - Gerry Turner may be happily engaged to Theresa Nist now, but he has some things to clarify about. In a new interview, "The Golden Bachelor" star responded to allegations that he misrepresented his career on the ABC series.
Gerry, who was introduced to viewers as a retired restaurateur, set the record straight after The Hollywood Report pointed out that his LinkedIn profile listed hot tub installment and maintenance work at a health center in the Davenport area among his careers.
"The comments about what I did later in life, with you know, hot tubs…some of the mentally challenged things - I did those after I retired," he told Katie Couric. "I retired at 55 and didn't want to do anything. And so I was very happy kind of giving back to the community, doing something that was worth something to other people."
The 72-year-old further explained, "I really didn't work as a handyman for the money. I did it because I knew I was doing something good for people who needed help. That's kind of the funny part of that article. There's just enough truth in it, but the reality is, it's not of concern to me now. I have so many positives that I have to think about that I haven't given that article a whole lot of thought."
Gerry also appeared to downplay a recently-released expose by his ex-girlfriend, who went by pseudonym Carolyn for privacy reasons. Insisting that he didn't live in the past, he said, "I wanna focus on what's going on now. The important thing for me is where I'm at today. And looking back on those things, to me, is no benefit," he emphasized.
He also defended himself by saying that he had in fact dated a number of women, just like "any guy." He noted, "It becomes an issue of how do you define if you're in a relationship or not."
Similarly, he previously told The New York Times, "I guess I haven't really looked at it as how accurate it is. I've more looked at it in terms of timing, and how it really doesn't fit with all of the positive things that are going on in my life right now." He continued, "I mean, I'm sitting across from Theresa right now, and I look at her, and she's the love of my life. And I really don't have time to think about some of the other stuff."
In The Hollywood Reporter article, Carolyn shut down Gerry's claim that he hadn't been kissed since the death of his wife Toni in 2017 because they dated for three years just one month after Toni's passing. Among other allegations, Carolyn additionally said that Gerry refused to take her to his high school reunion after she gained 10 pounds.
"I'm not taking you to the reunion looking like that," Gerry allegedly told her. That seemed to be the final straw as they broke up after the incident.
