Gerry Turner on His ‘Golden Bachelor’ Survival Guide, from Helen Mirren Hopes to Being Someone’s ‘Grandzaddy’

Gerry Turner has his fingers crossed for the next lady in his life!

In a preview clip that aired during The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All episode, Gerry opened up about his hopes for finding the next love in his life on The Golden Bachelor.

The 71-year-old Indiana native gave fans a glimpse into his relationship with his late wife, Toni. The two were high school sweethearts and were married for “43 wonderful years,” he says in the clip. The couple went on to welcome two daughters who eventually gave Gerry two granddaughters. 

Gerry Turner.

ABC/Brian Bowen Smith

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Weeks after the two bought their dream house and lived a “real typical and beautiful life,” Toni fell ill with a bacterial infection and died in the hospital. 

Now six years later, the newly minded reality star felt ready to find new love again, although he noted through tears that though nobody could “replace Toni.”

In a conversation with his friends at their local bar, Gerry revealed that he didn’t know if producers had already chosen the women he would be meeting on The Golden Bachelor, but Gerry quipped that he passed the show’s “the STD test and drug test.”

“Best case scenario is that I find out that Helen Mirren is on the market and she’s really happy to be on the Golden Bachelor,” he laughed in a confessional interview as the scene transitioned into Gerry practicing handing out roses with his daughters. 

Gerry Turner and family.

ABC/Brian Bowen Smith

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“You can’t be laughing, you gotta have a straight face,” one of his daughters said. As Gerry changed his expression to a frown they yelled out, “Don’t look like you’re going to cry!”

“I guess the first thing I’m worried about is remembering 25 names,” he joked in a private interview. 

Wrapping up his Golden Bachelor training, the family raised their glasses as Gerry shared a toast. “I hope at the end of it, I find the person that I’ll spend the rest of my life with that will complete our family,” he said. 

Gerry told the cameras he truly believes that person exists.

“I want to fall in love, I really want to find my person who can put me in my place when I need it and make me smile at it,” he said with thick emotion. “The person who can lay down beside you at night, not have to say anything and you feel it. That’s love. That’s what I want and I know that person’s out there.”

Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner.

ABC/Brian Bowen Smith

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Following the preview, Gerry told host Jesse Palmer that he wasn’t looking for the same type of love he had with Toni when asked if he could find the second love of his life. 

“I don’t think that’s what I’m looking for,” he admitted. “What I look for at the age of 70 is different than what I look for when I was in high school and college.”

He added, “So I believe I’ll find my person, the new person that will make me whole again, and I think we’ll knit a wonderful relationship. But I don’t think it’ll look like the relationship I had with Toni and I don’t think it would be right to do it that way.”

Jesse, 44, showed Gerry some of the positive feedback he’s received on social media, including how he’s being deemed a “grandzaddy.”

“I think what I’m most looking for that night is for one of those women, or several of those women, to just have that look in their eye like, oh gosh, okay I found my own grandzaddy,” Gerry later joked to Jesse.

Charity Lawson’s exes also asked Gerry for some advice on holding onto love for as long as he did with Toni.

“Look at your spouse every day and tell them you love them because the day comes too soon for one of you that you can’t do that,” Gerry advised. “I would give anything to be able to do that one more time. Tell them that you love them every day.”

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The Golden Bachelor will premiere this fall on ABC.

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Source: HIS Education