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We Went Behind the Scenes of ‘The Golden Bachelor.’ Here’s What Happened

The ladies play pickleball to impress Gerry Turner, 72, who’s as genuine off camera as he appears on TV


spinner image trista sutter and gerry turner holding pickleball rackets on the set of the golden bachelor
"The Bachelorette" Season 1 star Trista Sutter (left) with "The Golden Bachelor" Gerry Turner.
John Fleenor/ABC

As any fan of ABC’s reality dating show The Golden Bachelor knows, its star, Gerry Turner, 72, loves pickleball. So the pressure is on as eight of the nine remaining contenders for Turner’s hand, or at least his affection, have a group date to play pickleball at Westlake Athletic Club in Westlake Village, California, with Turner observing.

AARP is here on a hot August Saturday to watch the taping of this episode, which airs Oct. 19, and get a chance to chat with the blue-eyed bachelor and a few of the women vying for his heart.

Turner (his first name is pronounced “GAIR-ee,”) is a retired restaurateur in Indiana whose high school sweetheart and wife, Toni, died suddenly in 2017 after 43 years of marriage. He has two daughters and two granddaughters who encouraged him, after he’d spent a few years dating unsuccessfully, to apply to become the world’s first Golden Bachelor. The show, a spin-off of the network’s hugely popular series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, premiered on Sept. 28 with 22 contestants, all between the ages of 60 and 75.

Turner is required to send a few women home in each episode, as he begins to sense who may or may not be compatible. Then, in theory, the drama will end with Turner offering a marriage proposal to — or, perhaps more maturely, a declaration that he would like to continue to explore his compatibility with — one of the ladies.

But at this point in the show (the fourth episode) the women appear to like Gerry Turner very much — if they could just get more time with him. “He has beautiful blue eyes,” says April, 65, a therapist from Florida whose beloved significant other Ralphie passed away two years ago. “He’s very good looking. I mean, he’s very dreamy. What scares me is that he’s dreamy to everybody.”

“I like that he’s down-to-earth and compassionate,” says Nancy, 60, a retired interior designer from Alexandria, Virginia, when asked what she likes about Turner. But, she adds, “I haven’t had a one-on-one date. We have these little cocktail parties, and everybody gets a chance to go sit with him for maybe six minutes, eight minutes. And I’ve done that three times. So how would I know?”

spinner image gerry turner and the women contestants toast their glasses and roses in the air on the golden bachelor
John Fleenor/ABC

‘Kisses of joy’

We can say one thing for sure: Turner’s blue eyes are even nicer in person than they are on screen. He tells AARP that he hopes to find that special someone, but also that the show will help dispel the many misconceptions people have about older adults and romance — like that “older people probably aren’t going to kiss passionately, and older people are probably going to take naps as opposed to staying up late. The first night [when he met the 22 women], I was up until 7:30 a.m.! They had to pull me away. I did not want to leave. I wanted to stay and party.”

And yet, he adds, he is more interested in making an emotional, rather than physical, connection. “I think I’ve kissed every one of the women in the house,” he says, “but they’re not kisses of passion. They’re kisses of joy and support and friendship.”

Turner’s also clearly become comfortable in the spotlight. Wearing gray shorts and a blue T-shirt, he hams it up in front of the pickleball audience, clustered around the court, while the crew and producers prepare for shooting under the hot sun. He runs around the edge of the court, offering high-fives and asking, “How many pickleball players are here?” to a wave of cheers.

spinner image trista sutter jesse palmer and gerry turner sit in front of microphones at a table with a sign that says first annual golden bachelor pickleball championship behind them
(Left to right) Trista Sutter, "The Golden Bachelor" host Jesse Palmer and Gerry Turner.
John Fleenor/ABC

The big game

The plan is for the eight women to play two games of doubles, then the two winning teams move on to battle it out in a final bout. The champion duo will grace the cover a future issue of InPickleball magazine, and, maybe more important, impress Gerry with their pickleball prowess. Presiding as referee: Joey Graziadei, 28, who came close to winning Charity Lawson’s heart on the last season of The Bachelorette, and is set to be the next star of The Bachelor. Gerry and special guest Trista Sutter — the very first Bachelorette, in 2003, who’s famous for having made one of Bachelor Nation’s rare love matches with her pick and now-husband of two decades, Ryan — are joined by the show’s host, Jesse Palmer, at a table in front of a banner, “First Annual Golden Bachelor Pickleball Championship,” to observe and judge the games.

Palmer tapes his introduction before the ladies appear on the court for the competition; he calls this the “sports event of the century” and a “historic” moment.

The humming audience consists of members of the club who’ve been invited to act as fans. Before the taping starts, a group of them excitedly gather in the club office to sign release forms distributed by a young ABC rep. Among the wannabe fans is Evangeline Lara, a petite divorcee of 74, wearing big sunglasses, white pants, white shirt and sporty white cap who says she’s watched The Bachelor but didn’t know about The Golden Bachelor until now. “If I had, I would have applied!” she says. “I think he’s cute.”

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Then she drops a bombshell: “Gerry has a tattoo, right here,” she says, pointing to her upper arm. She saw him changing his shirt on the court earlier, though was too far away to decipher the image. “I have one too,” she adds, pulling down the back of her pants a few inches to display a little dolphin tattoo.

Back on the court, the women finally show up, displaying a hammy, energetic vibe similar to Turner’s — clapping and grinning, and wearing eye-scorchingly bright short-skirted get-ups: the Dinky Pinkies in pink (Faith and April), Pickle-icious Paddles in green (Kathy and Ellen), Bitchin Kitchens in orange (Nancy and Sandra) and Picklettes in purple (Theresa and Susan).

In the first game, the Pickle-icious Paddles toast the Dinky Pinkies 6-0 – though perky April gets in a particularly good shot (“Did you see that Gerry?” she asks, her blond braid swinging) — and then the pair trounce the orange team in the championship round.

Afterward, Sutter says she’s impressed with the sportsmanship and camaraderie among the women, and sees a difference between this group and those on shows with younger contestants. “They are so supportive of each other,” she adds. “I don’t know if it’s an age thing… but I can totally see that if they were younger people, maybe they would be a little more cutthroat.”

And Turner, ever the gentleman, is certainly not a typical Bachelor. “These are just such good people,” he says, earnestly, of the women he’s courting. “I want them all to win and be happy in life.”

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