Gerry Turner is ABC’s first ‘Golden Bachelor’: ‘It's never too late to fall in love again’

On Monday, the longstanding The Bachelor franchise announced Gerry Turner, 71, as their first “Golden Bachelor.” The new show will feature a new kind of match making for “the golden years.”

"It's never too late to fall in love again," Turner told Good Morning America.

Turner, who is a retired restaurateur, was married to his high school sweetheart Toni for 43 years before she passed away in 2017. He shares two daughters, Angie and Jenny with his late wife.

"She got robbed," Turner said as he expressed his feelings on his wife’s passing. "Every day that goes by, that's the thought I have."

The pickleball lover revealed that it was his two daughters that convinced him to sign up for the show.

When asked what his wife would think about his new adventure, he said she would be happy and would cheer him on.

"I have her picture on a dresser in my closet," he shared. "Every morning I give her the nod, 'So what do you think about this?' For a while it was like I was having a hard time figuring out if she would be OK. But we always told each other, when one of us goes, we want the other one to be happy."

"She's saying, 'Yeah Gerry, do this,'" he added.

The 71-year-old sport enthusiast says that he’s looking for someone who matches his energy and is also into sports.

"I'd love it if I found a partner who was high energy, someone who's fairly competitive, that they enjoy sports," he said. "Someone that maybe plays pickleball, someone that maybe plays golf."