Wow, the ABC machine is really trying hard to spin this one!

If you missed it, The Hollywood Reporter dropped a bombshell exposé on Wednesday pulling back the curtain on The Golden Bachelor. Basically they showed evidence this whole loveless widow narrative was total BS. Far from not having dated in four decades or having kissed a woman in six years, Gerry Turner has been dating since the month after his wife died!

Not only did witnesses from his neck of the woods say they’d seen him with multiple women, they said a few of the relationships “weren’t short-term either.” And one woman, whom the publication referred to as Carolyn told her entire story. Gerry turned their working relationship into a dinner — and before she knew it they were dating. She even started living with him, in that dream retirement home on the lake, the one he bought for his wife. She provided proof they were together for over TWO AND A HALF YEARS! Until, that is, he refused to take her as his date for his high school reunion because she’d put on 10 lbs. He allegedly told her:

“I’m not taking you to the reunion looking like that.”

So… how is the ‘Golden Bachelor’ responding to the not-so-shiny revelations?

Just hours after the article went viral, an exclusive People interview went live. Supposedly Gerry had given the talk “previously,” i.e. before the bomb dropped. See, that way he was being honest the whole time! Hmm…

In the sitdown, Turner discusses his dating life after the passing of his wife of 43 years, and once again it’s a real sob story. He tells the mag:

“I’ve dated a number of times since Toni’s passed, more recently than back closer to when she’s passed.”

OK, so he admits what he says on the show about not dating in 45 years is a lie? But if Carolyn is telling the truth (and THR says they’ve seen the text messages and other documentation), that was obviously very close to when Toni passed. He also says:

“For one reason or another, the attempts didn’t work out. I could give you a wide range of reasons, but it doesn’t really matter.”

Reasons, like say, she put on some weight? Also, “a wide range” is a funny way of putting it, isn’t it? Sounds like a confirmation there were a LOT of different women.

However, despite saying there were lots of reasons, he went on to imply there was really just the one — he was still too sad about the passing of his wife. He told the outlet he thought he was ready to date after a year then “realized he wasn’t.” (Again, this timeline does NOT line up with Carolyn’s!) He recalled:

“Somehow I got it in my head that if you grieve for a year, that at the end of the year you should be OK. It absolutely wasn’t the case.”

Gerry refers to the years of dating as “a difficult time.” Again, we have to reiterate, he was allegedly with a woman for TWO AND A HALF YEARS. That’s what he’s talking about as “difficult” as he says, “One failure led to another for a variety of reasons.” He’s making it sound like he would go out on first dates and crumble, but we’re talking about full-on relationships he’s describing as “failures” here. So in reality, per the THR report, he was successfully dating women, just, you know, leaving them.

So it kinda sounds like every time he was tired of having sex with a woman after a few months, or she didn’t meet his beauty standards anymore, he was suddenly hit with pangs of widower grief and just couldn’t bring himself to go on?? That’s what he’s saying?

He then said after three years of dating people, he finally got grief counseling, and that was what helped:

“I finally decided, ‘It’s time for me to go see a grief counselor,’ because I wasn’t sure I was on track. I wasn’t sure I was mending properly. It was probably a life changer for me because I remember having two sessions with the counselor, and he goes, ‘You’re fine. You just got to give yourself credit for being OK.’”

Our assessment of all this?

Going on dates and moving to the next step, including living together? And then breaking up? That isn’t being paralyzed by grief. That’s just dating.

And importantly it’s a TOTAL REVERSAL of the image painted of Turner’s life after being widowed. He dated A LOT, he was the pursuer, he allegedly dumped women for really shallow, crappy reasons. It feels like ABC or Bachelor Nation or whomever has him out here telling the truth about dating a lot — only still selling it in a very different way.

What’s YOUR read of the situation, Perez nation??

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