August 17, 2023 • bachelor insider
Gerry Turner Reveals How His Late Wife Toni Tragically Passed Away After 43 Years Together
In our hearts.
Bachelor Nation fans are getting excited for the very first season of “The Golden Bachelor” this fall and we got a sneak peek at Gerry’s journey on this week’s “Men Tell All” episode.
During the episode, Gerry introduced himself and shared the story of how he unexpectedly lost his wife of 43 years about six years ago.
Gerry is seen at their lake house and says, “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 beautiful life, full of love, full of activity, and as years went on, I retired.”
The Golden Bachelor continued on, saying, “We had a plan and 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, and closed on it on June 6th. From June 6th on, it didn’t go according to plan at all. She became ill and her situation got worse over a couple of weeks.”
Gerry shared that Toni’s illness progressed at a rate that neither of them saw coming.
He said, “So we went to the emergency room and she had a bacterial infection that infected her kidneys and infected her liver. So I took my wife to the emergency room on July 7th. She passed away on July 15th. No one’s ever going to replace Toni, but the love of my daughters and my granddaughters pulled me out of a dark spot.”
Now, six years later, Gerry is ready to find love again. He got emotional during a toast with his daughters and granddaughters where he shared what he is looking for in a partner now.
Gerry says, “I hope at the end of this, I’ll find that person to spend the rest of my life with that will complete our family. 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. I want someone who can lay down beside me at night and not have to say anything, but you feel that’s love. That’s what I want and I know that person is out there.”
We can’t wait to watch Gerry’s love story unfold! Check out the full clip above for more from Gerry.
