Golden Bachelor’s Leslie Recalls Dark Days After Show’s Finale, Reveals If She’ll Read Gerry’s Book

Leslie Fhima is giving an update on where she stands with ex Gerry Turner after appearing on The Golden Bachelor season 1.

“I really don’t have a relationship with Gerry. If I see him, we’re fine. We are very cordial,” Leslie, 66, said on the Friday, August 1, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast. “I really only want the best for him.”

Leslie ran into Gerry, 73, at the finale of Grant Ellis’ season 29 of The Bachelor earlier this year — where the former Golden Bachelor revealed that he was in a relationship with new girlfriend Lana.

“I’m happy for him,” Leslie said. “I just want everyone to be happy, really. In our age, it’s like TikTok. We all wanna find our person and get on with our life. So I’m happy for him.”

She continued, “Obviously, if you would have asked me that September after the show when I got home, it was hard for me and I did have some dark days. But like always, I just picked myself up and moved on, so I only want the best.”

During the November 2023 finale, Leslie was sent packing before Gerry got down on one knee and popped the question to Theresa Nist. Gerry and Theresa, 72, tied the knot during a live ABC special in January 2024. Months later, the pair shared their plans to part ways and Us Weekly confirmed in June 2024 that they signed a martial settlement agreement.

When asked whether she wished the show would have “played out differently,” Leslie admitted that it’s “hard for [her] to say.”

“I really feel like everything happens for a reason. I don’t know. Theresa and I are alike a lot, but we’re very different, too. So I don’t know if one person is a better fit for somebody else, versus whatever,” she said. “I think things happen the way that they are supposed to. Now that I am very far removed from it, I feel that it was best that I was not the last girl standing.”

Leslie shared that she had some “bad times” after the show, including watching the season back. In December 2023, Leslie noted that she “felt better” — and was “fine” by the time Theresa and Gerry said “I do.”

Now, as Gerry gears up to launch his November memoir — titled Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV — Leslie shared her thoughts on being name-dropped in the book.

“I have to be mentioned because I was a big part of that show and a big part of his journey,” she said. “I think that I don’t feel like I did anything where he is going to say something derogatory about me. So I’m OK, I think, with it. We had a great time, we laughed a lot. He broke my heart, but everything is OK.”

She continued, “I didn’t do anything, obviously. It’s his journey, his decision. So I’m OK. Am I going to read it? I don’t know. I have to see, I’m not sure. I’m interested in seeing what he says so I probably will.”

Leslie, for her part, took another shot at love on Bachelor in Paradise season 10, where she ended up pursuing a connection with Gary Levingston. The pair, however, were sent home during the Monday, August 4, episode of Bachelor in Paradise in a new twist to the show.

“Even though I’m sad and I wish we could have stayed, I think that we showed the young people that when you get older, you don’t have to stop having fun or tame it down, obviously,” she said in a confessional, while Gary, 66, shared that the pair would “continue to move forward with our journey, just in a different way.”