The 72-year-old father of two was married to his high school sweetheart for 43 years.
Gerry Turner is moving forward after the difficult loss of his wife, Toni, six years ago. In a new sneak peek clip, the 72-year-old first star of The Golden Bachelor opens up about the painful death of his high school sweetheart in 2017, shortly after she retired.
Noting they had a "typical but beautiful life, full of love, full of activity," Gerry shared that he and his late wife closed on their dream house on June 6, the same day that Toni retired.
"From June 6 on, it didn't go according to plan at all. She became ill and her situation got worse over a couple of weeks," Gerry said, choking up as he recounted the difficult period. "We went to the emergency room and she had a bacterial infection that infected her kidneys and infected her liver. I took my wife to the emergency room on July 7. She passed away on July 15."
As he moves forward, Gerry notes, "No one's ever going to replace Toni, but the love of my daughters and my granddaughters pulled me out of a dark spot."
The retired restauranteur says he's hoping to find the person he'll spend the rest of his life with.
"Best case scenario is I find out Helen Mirren's on the market, and she's really happy to be on The Golden Bachelor," Gerry quipped. He also teased that he passed his drug test and STD test ahead of the show filming.
The new reality star recently spoke with ET's Denny Directo about how his family inspired him to sign up for the show.
"They were the ones that motivated me to respond early on to the casting call," he told ET of his two daughters and two granddaughters.
As for how his wife would react to him being on the show, Gerry quipped, "Being a bit of a hot head as she was, she'd say, 'Get the hell out there and get going with this.' But I think in reality, she'd be thrilled for this."
"We talked frequently as time went on... about what we expected for the other if one of us didn't live forward, and it was, like, we both wanted the other to be happy," Gerry added of Toni. "She would be very encouraging."
The Golden Bachelor will premiere this fall on ABC.
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