Fans of ABC reality show The Golden Bachelor couldn’t believe their ears as 73-year-old Gerry Turner took his first ever STD test for the programme.
OAP Gerry was looking for love on the show with a variety of women, eventually whittling them down to Leslie Fhima, 64, and Theresa Nist, 70. The finale was left on a major cliffhanger as the show broke for Thanksgiving, leaving it unclear who Gerry picked.
However, one spoiler source claims to know exactly who Gerry handed his final rose to, with Gerry proposing marriage. According to insiders, he’s still engaged to her three months after filming wrapped.
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Speaking on the Life is Short podcast, Gerry opened up about the behind-the-scenes procedure, dropping a few home truths that might shock fans of the smooth romance show. He revealed that the casting crew laid out ground rules for his appearance.
“I was in Florida in February of this year. I was actually traveling with an old girlfriend. We were just friends.
“I got a call from ABC, wanting me to go to initiate the process to go get an STD test. And it’s like, that’s a little bit of a tender moment,” he said. I had to send my fingerprints to the FBI. There were numerous background checks. There was a psychological evaluation that was like 360 questions and then another hour of interview. The vetting process is ridiculously thorough.
“As I recall, that may have been my very first-ever STD test, I had no idea what was going to happen. I didn’t know if they were going to look in the iris of my eye, take a urine sample, a blood sample. I had no idea.”
The regular Bachelor also features some pretty rigorous testing – and one book claims one star was rejected for having Herpes. Amy Kaufman, author of Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favourite Guilty Pleasure, claims STDs are the “top reason” stars fail to make it.
She penned; “If it turned out the person had an STD, they would be taken out of the running immediately. And apparently, that’s the top reason applicants don’t make it onto the show.”
Assistant to the executive producer Ben Hatta also admitted: “As soon as the medical tests came back, you’d see that herpes was the biggest thing. And sometimes you’d be the first person to tell a contestant that they had herpes. You’d be like, ‘Uh, you should call your doctor.’ Why? ‘We’re not going to be able to have you on our show, but you should call your doctor.’
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“Then they’d realise they’d been denied from The Bachelor and now a bunch of people knew they had herpes,” he added.
Kaufman also claims that private investigators are used on the show to check out a contestant’s sordid past. They’d investigate any potential arrests, nude photo leaks, sex tapes and DUIs to get ahead of any tabloid stories during the show’s run.
Medical tests include blood and urine samples to test for drugs, while doctors would also check which ongoing medication stars would need during the process. Producer Mike Fleiss explained: “We lose a lot of great potential characters because we’re so tough and stringent… Anyone who has any sort of borderline personality disorder or instability or any sort of past involving contemplation of suicide – we just can’t take the risk. We just don’t.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
