The senior-focused series will premiere this fall on ABC.
Gerry Turner is the first-ever Golden Bachelor! During Monday's episode of Good Morning America, the 71-year-old widower and father of two was announced as the inaugural leading man for The Bachelor's upcoming senior spinoff series, The Golden Bachelor.
Describing himself as "71 years young," Turner gushes, "It's never too late to fall in love again."
The Indiana resident was previously married to his high school sweetheart, Toni, who died in 2017 after becoming ill just six weeks after she retired. The franchise's new star says that he has spoken to his late wife about his TV opportunity, saying on Good Morning America, "For a while, I was having a hard time figuring out if she was OK... but we always told each other, when one of us goes, we want the other to be happy. She's up there rooting. She's saying, 'Yeah, Gerry, do this!'"
Turner is a father of two daughters, who are very excited watch their dad's love story unfold. He says he's looking for someone with "high energy," who might play pickleball and golf. As for whether there's a wedding special in his future, Turner notes, "I wouldn't discount it."
In ABC's press release, Bachelor Nation learned that Turner is a retired restauranteur who lives in a beautiful home on a lake in Indiana. The family man married Toni in 1974 and they shared daughters Angie and Jenny, as well as granddaughters Charlee and Payton.
The exciting reveal comes two months after ABC announced the long-awaited Bachelor franchise series focusing on senior citizens' love stories was finally a go. At the time, the network teased that the new kind of love story would give a hopeless romantic a second chance at love in the search for a partner with whom to share the sunset years of life.
As for the women, they'll arrive at the mansion with a lifetime of experience of living through love, loss and laughter, and hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities. In the end, viewers will watch as the Golden man turns the page to start a new chapter with hopefully the woman of his dreams.
In the days leading up to Turner's reveal as the leading man, ABC released a series of teasers promoting the upcoming series. The first teaser showed a red rose turning gold, while a follow-up video showed the man in question adjusting a gold pocket square.
There was also a poster of the Golden Bachelor's back released over the weekend with the tagline, "It's never too late to find love... again."
The Golden Bachelor will premiere this fall on ABC.
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