“Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner kisses on the first date. The 71-year-old from Indiana — who stars in ABC’s senior citizen spinoff of “The Bachelor” — miserably failed at the one promise he had with his daughters before kicking off his journey.
“There was one. I promised my daughters and granddaughters that I would not kiss anyone on night one. And I failed,” Turner tells The Post ahead of the show’s premiere Thursday.
“As I recall, I think I only failed once.”
The grandpa, however, has no regrets. In fact, he isn’t apologetic about anything he did all season.
“In the beginning, shortly after the season ended and everything was put to bed, I felt like I had a few regrets. But now that there’s been a little time for me to sort through the facts and my feelings and so forth, quite honestly, I don’t think I would go back and change a thing,” he admits.
“I’m really happy about how things have went.”
As for that first night kiss? “No regrets on that at all,” he mused. “By the time the second and third nights rolled around, I feel like I kissed about every woman there. So, you know, there’s different levels of affection.”
The widower will date 22 women on “The Golden Bachelor,” but he “wasn’t nervous about forgetting names” during the process.
“I wasn’t actually nervous about the rose ceremonies,” he tells The Post. “The most difficult part about that very first rose ceremony was trying to get enough information to make the first decisions. It was almost not a case of who’s right, but finding those who were definitely wrong for me. Wonderful women, all poised, intelligent. I loved each one of them. But that first night, it was about finding the ones that I knew just would not be right for me.”
For Turner, communication is key. “I think the most important one was the ability to communicate well, both in listening skills and in being able to verbalize their feelings and their thoughts. Secondly, I wanted someone who had a really good sense of humor, someone who pretty much emoted kindness and thoughtfulness and a genuine feeling of wanting to be a partner.”
And don’t worry, there will be plenty of tears — from him.
“I think the biggest surprise, or maybe the emotion that caught me the most off-guard, was that I’m easy to tears. I feel for the women so deeply at times that whether it’s joy or sorrow, it was right there,” he said. “It was just bubbling just below the surface. And I was a little surprised at myself for that.”
“The Golden Bachelor” premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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