Gerry Turner left three women without roses on the latest episode of The Golden Bachelor, but they weren’t the only ones whose shot at love with the 72-year-old leading man came to an end Thursday night.
Another contestant walked away from the competition quietly—so quietly, ABC didn’t even air her exit.
As for who quit and why, the answer to the show’s first-ever mystery follows.
Bye-bye, Marina
Viewers barely had a chance to meet Marina Perera on last week’s Golden Bachelor premiere, given that the one-hour series opener cycled through the introductions so fast.
Now it seems unlikely they’ll get to know her at all.
That’s because the 60-year-old educator from Los Angeles, California had to exit the love-match show to deal with something more important than dating Turner on reality TV. A family emergency sent Perera packing.
But the only mention of Perera’s departure happened on social media after the second episode ended.
How Gerry found out
The Golden Bachelor’s official account on X, formerly Twitter, posted a video of the moment Turner learned Perera left.
In the two-minute clip, host Jesse Palmer tells Turner that “Marina’s had a situation with her family back home. She’s no longer here now.” He then hands the eligible senior a phone so that Turner could get some FaceTime closure with the former contestant.
“The thing I wanted to tell you—you know, I’m a single mom, and I had to choose my family and support my family’s needs at this time,” Perera says to Turner, without getting into any details about the matter. “I am sorry that I had to leave, but at the same time, I had to get my priorities straight. So here I am, and there you are.”
Turner’s reaction is exactly what fans have already come to expect from the charming widower.
“I fully understand,” he tells Perera. “Commitment to family overrides just about everything else, and I really respect you for doing what you’ve done. I agree with you, 100 percent, that you needed to put your family needs before everything else.”
He then offered her his prayers and support before sharing with Palmer, “I’m disappointed. I’m sure she’s disappointed.”
None of it made the cut
The caption that accompanied the video read, “The bittersweet part of maturing gracefully: honoring your priorities. Nothing but respect for Marina and her difficult situation.”
It’s a shame drama-free and sincere moment never made it to TV, but viewers who spotted the clip online felt certain they knew the reason for that.
“Really should’ve made room for this scene on the show!” one wrote in reply to the post. “Extend #GoldenBachelor to 90 mins or 2 hrs, please.”
There it is. The franchise routinely devotes two hours to The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, but the instantly popular Golden Bachelor only gets 60 minutes to share its senior love quest.
It’s not enough.
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