See ‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner Get Emotional About His Late Wife (VIDEO)

Martin Holmes
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Fans tuning into The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All on Monday, August 14, got a better look at Gerry Turner, the star of the upcoming first-ever Golden Bachelor, and it was an emotional moment.

Before host Jesse Palmer invited Turner onto the stage to greet the audience, a video package introduced the 71-year-old, who opened up about his wife of 43 years, Toni, who sadly passed away in July 2017, just a month after the couple bought their dream home.

“I married my high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1972. We had 43 wonderful years together. We had two daughters and I now have two wonderful granddaughters. We had a real typical but full life. Full of love, full of love, full of activity,” Turner said in the clip.

He continued, “As years went on, I retired, and we had a plan. We had an idea of what our dream house was going to be, so when Toni retired at the end of May in 2017, we bought that dream house.”

But just a month later, Toni became increasingly sick. “We went to the emergency room, and she had a bacterial infection that infected her kidneys and infested her liver,” Turner explained. “And so I took my wife to the emergency room on July 7, and she passed away on July 15. Now every time I look at [the lake outside my house], I go, ‘This is her dream. This is what she deserves. Why am I standing here alone?'”

Now, with the encouragement of his children, Turner is ready to look for love once again. “My dad is just such a fun guy. He’s so personable and lovable. He’s so kind, and he has so much to give. He just deserves to find that in somebody else,” said Turner’s daughter Angie.

In a lighter moment, Turner joked that he has “passed the STD and the drug test” and said, “Best case scenario is I find out Helen Mirren is on the market and she’s really happy to be on The Golden Bachelor.”

The suave grandpa received a warm welcome from the studio audience as he arrived on stage to chat with Palmer. When asked about the potential of his season featuring Fantasy Suites, Turner said he’s open to it, “but what they would look like might be a little different.”

He also said he isn’t looking to replicate his previous marriage, noting, “What I look for at the age of 70 is different than what I looked for when I was in high school or college. 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.”

Check out some of the fan reaction to Turner below.

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