The secret partner or very recent ex back home is a time-honored Bachelor Nation tradition, perhaps most notably practiced by Hannah Brown’s short-lived fiancé Jed Wyatt, who was later exposed for being in a relationship the entire time he was on the show. The Golden Bachelor was supposed to be an antidote to all that—a 72-year-old widower who calls sex “knocking boots” can’t be that much of a player, right?
Well, according to an ex-girlfriend who was conveniently never mentioned on the show, he very much can. In a new exposé from The Hollywood Reporter, “Carolyn,” who allegedly dated Gerry for three years after the death of his wife Toni, tells her side of the story.
Per the report, Gerry and Carolyn, 14 years his junior, began dating a month after Toni died. They had met years prior at a mental health clinic in Iowa where they both worked. Gerry allegedly contacted Carolyn after his wife’s death to help him donate some of her clothes and the relationship blossomed from there. “Until I went back and looked at my text messages, I never realized Gerry’s texts had turned hot and heavy so relatively soon,” Carolyn said, referring specifically to messages where Gerry wrote, “I got LUCKY when you first said you would go to dinner with me two weeks ago. I mean how often does an old geezer get the beautiful girl?” and “You are the right woman for me. No need to look further.”
After a year of dating, Carolyn says she moved from Iowa to Gerry’s lake house in Indiana to be with him, after he promised her mother he intended to marry her. Things went downhill from there. While there was conflict about finances and the routine of the home, the final nail came when Gerry commented on her weight in 2019 as she was packing to attend his high school reunion. “I’m not taking you to the reunion looking like that,” he allegedly told her, a comment that eventually led to their breakup.
While this is clearly icky behavior, the real kicker here is that the show lied about Carolyn’s existence along with a number of other women Gerry allegedly dated in the six years since Toni’s death. “I haven’t dated in 45 years,” he told Entertainment Tonight in advance of the premiere and has still only admitted to one pre-show kiss. All in all, this is just another reminder that in Bachelor Nation—as in all reality shows—we’re only ever seeing a fraction of the story.