'Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner accused of blindsiding runner-up Leslie Fhima: 'I don't respect what he did'
After "Golden Bachelor" Gerry Turner, 72, chose Theresa Nist ,70, over runner-up Leslie Fhiman, 64, during the finale, she claimed he "blindsided" her.
"The Golden Bachelor" runner-up Leslie Fhima is speaking her truth.
The 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis revealed she "knew" it was not a good sign once the reality show's star, Gerry Turner, knocked on her door ahead of the season finale.
"I heard the knock on the door – I knew… this was it," Fhima said during the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
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"As far as I knew, a couple days before that, I was his choice, I was the one," she confessed.
Fhima continued to say that from Turner’s emotions, she could tell it was not going to be a good sign for her.
After getting a second chance to talk with Turner, Fhima said she felt like she "left it all on the table" for "The Golden Bachelor."
"I felt like I said what I needed to say to him… I’m not going to grovel, obviously, I was just blindsided," she admitted. "I just wanted to get out of there and be done. Looking back, I don’t have any regrets."
Fhima previously shared what really happened behind closed doors of the Fantasy Suite ahead of the finale.
During the last episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, she said Turner made her feel "100% certain" she would receive the final rose – not Theresa Nist.
"I don't want to say everything he said, but it was 100% certainty that I woke up the next morning that I was going to be it," she noted.
"He made plans with me for [the] future. Kind of like, 'Save the date, this is what we're going to do. I can't wait for us. Two more days and we'll be done with this. We'll be together, start our life.' Did he say, ‘Will you marry me’ in there? No. But he all but said that."
While the 72-year-old retired restaurateur appeared to put his heart on the line for what seemed to be the first time since the death of his wife Toni in 2017, "The Golden Bachelor" runner-up revealed a few thorns in Turner's tale, as she claimed she was misled.
Fhima continued to share her side of the story and their off-camera conversations during their overnight date.
"I would've been happy with just 'I love you,' but he took it to a different level," she recalled.
"When we woke up the next morning, and he left, he turned around three times and blew me kisses. He didn't want to leave."
"That's why I wasn't worried that he was going on a date. I just knew he had to get through the emotions of it. I was 100% sure that I was it. He didn't say, 'I have such a hard decision to make.' Nothing like that."
Fhima went on to say she felt a sense of "relief" from Turner during their conversations off-camera.
"It wasn't like, 'What are we doing now?' We talked for hours… [I was thinking,] 'This is it,'" she added. "It was really nice, because that's why I went and picked out this dress, that's why I wrote my vows because I was 100% certain. There were things he said to me in the overnight that alluded to his overnight with Theresa wasn't going to be the same."
Although Fhima said she did not feel like she received "closure" from Turner, she accepted her fate with "The Golden Bachelor."
After she confessed that she loved him and even met his family, she shared that she wished he had handled situations differently.
"I don't respect what he did. It started with [second runner-up] Faith and then me a little more because I went to Costa Rica and did all that. I feel like he used 'I love you' too much... He hurt me."
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"I would never want to hurt anyone the way I was hurt or blindsided. My heart is precious to me, and I'm just not going to give it to anybody. When you say 'I love you' to somebody, it means something. I just don't throw that word around," she continued.
"I haven't said it in a really long time to someone. It meant something to me to say it to Gerry. I know it would be hard. I'm sure it's hard when you do love two different people or three different people, but I just wouldn't say. I'd show my affection in different ways."
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Meanwhile, Turner found true love again with Nist.
The 72-year-old, who was the ABC reality show's first leading "Golden Bachelor," dropped to one knee and proposed to Nist, 70, before giving her his final rose at the end of the series finale on Thursday night.
"I came to the realization that you're not the right person for me to live with," he told her after saying goodbye to Fhima. "You're the person I can't live without."