Reality Check: 'Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner deflects questions on his past

'THE GOLDEN' DEFLECTOR

“The Golden Bachelor” star Gerry Turner danced around a New York Times question and did not deny a report of untruths and exaggerations in his romantic and employment history before the dating competition.

Turner — who chose Theresa Nist on the finale and announced a Jan. 4 wedding — had begun dating a woman a month after his wife Toni’s death in 2017, and then lived with her for almost two years, according to an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter. The trade magazine reviewed documentation, including texts by Turner, and spoke with multiple people who knew him.

Turner was not a “retired restaurateur” but had been the owner of a Mr. Quick hamburger drive-in franchise who then worked in the meat business; installed hot tubs; and finally was a maintenance man at Iowa’s Vera French Mental Health Center.

There he met a staff accountant 14 years his junior. After his wife’s passing, Turner and the woman, identified pseudonymously to help protect against trolling and online attacks in the wake of the hugely popular series, began dating. After 10 months, they lived together for 1¾ years, as documented by a public-records background check and other sources. Turner had said, “I haven’t dated in 45 years.”

Questioned by the Times after the finale, Turner maintained he had given the expose only “a cursory look” and then deflected, stating, “I’ve more looked at it in terms of timing, and how it really doesn’t fit with all of the positive things that are going on in my life right now.”

CLOSE CALL

Uniondale’s Donya Taylor landed in the bottom two on “Hell’s Kitchen,” alongside Sandra Gajovsky, with the latter going home. Taylor is now in the Top 9.

‘LOVE IT OR’ RETIRE IT

Interior designer Hilary Farr is stepping away from her and David Visentin’s popular HGTV real estate series “Love It or List It” after 258 episodes and 12 years.

“David and I will remain friends forever and I expect him to be as fabulously and hilariously annoying as ever," said Farr in part in a statement. The show “has had such a true impact on so many lives, including mine, but now it’s time for me to embrace new challenges that have come my way. If this is my legacy, it's a great one."

HGTV executive Loren Ruch added that Farr and Visentin “will always be an esteemed HGTV duo, and the network looks forward to a new chapter for ‘Love It or List It.’ ”

FINALES

In a series first, the finale of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” season 32 will include all five semifinalist couples: actors Xochitl Gomez and Alyson Hannigan, reality-TV stars Charity Lawson and Ariana Madix and singer Jason Mraz and their respective ballroom-pro partners, Tuesday from 8 to 11 p.m. live … and ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise” season 9 winds down with its own three-hour finale Thursday at 8.

PREMIERES

The Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant of “Southern Hospitality” gets a new cast-member, VIP server Oisin O’Neill, on the show’s sophomore season, Thursday at 9 p.m. on Bravo … and two Yuletide culinary competitions come down the chimney: “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays,” with six episodes on the streamer Netflix starting early Friday, and Fox’s two-episode “MasterChef Junior: Home for the Holidays,” Sunday and next Monday from 8 to 10 p.m. each night.

RECAPS

Reality-TV star Tom Sandoval and YouTube sensation JoJo Siwa quit the self-elimination military-style competition “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” leaving reality stars Tyler Cameron and Nick Viall and Olympic gold medalist Erin Jackson the last three standing on the season 2 finale … and Bruce Perreault was voted off “Survivor.”