The Golden Bachelor winner Theresa Nist has defended not reaching out to Leslie Fhima more after Gerry Turner dumped Leslie in favor of Theresa.

ADVERTISEMENT

Leslie finished as Gerry's runner-up on The Golden Bachelor in favor of his winner and eventual fiancee, Theresa, and Gerry and Theresa got engaged on the show's November 30 finale.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

Leslie appeared absolutely heartbroken because not only did Gerry say, "I love you," to her, but she also claimed Gerry had convinced her in the Fantasy Suite that she was his person and they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

"I've spoken on the phone with [Gerry's third-place finisher Faith Martin] several times. We're really great, and I love Faith," Theresa told Katie Couric on her YouTube channel.

"I've texted with Leslie and I love Leslie, and then I've reached out and others have reached out to me."

Leslie sobbed during The Golden Bachelor finale about how she felt betrayed, lied to, and misled. And she confronted Gerry on After the Final Rose about how she took his words to heart throughout the process and therefore ended up devastated and embarrassed.

Katie therefore suggested to Theresa -- who conducted the interview with Gerry by her side -- that Leslie may need "more than just a text" from her friends after what she went through on and after the show.

"Well, yes. No, I gave her an extremely long, loving text, and I really wanted to -- she needed time," Theresa explained.

"I wanted to allow her to come to me, and I knew that she had this live [After the Final Rose] event where she needed to be in her own head and not be influenced by me."

Theresa added that Leslie needed to "experience that herself" but she "will be reaching out to Leslie" in the near future.

"I do love Leslie," Theresa repeated.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)  

In fact, Theresa insisted that she got along with many of the bachelorettes from Gerry's The Golden Bachelor season.

"We actually really loved each other. We had a blast. It's an experience that no one else, so far in our age group, has been able to have," Theresa shared.

"We had a moment in time that was so special, and everything was so new to us. And having had your phone taken away from you, and you're not able to watch TV, and you can't listen to music, you had to key into the relationships."

Theresa recalled forming "very strong bonds with several of the women," and she added, "Ironically, it was Leslie and Faith who I was closest with."

Theresa said she also had "very deep conversations" with Ellen Goltzer, Edith Aguirre and Susan Noles as well.

Theresa also claimed she has spoken with Sylvia Robledo, Marina Perera, Anna Zalk, Peggy Dercole, and Pamela Burns since the show wrapped filming.

"It was really a wonderful and incredible experience, and I love all these women," Theresa concluded.

"And so, yeah, we've spoken and we're planning on getting together someday."

Gerry told Access Hollywood in a recent joint interview with Theresa how Leslie had a lot of emotions on After the Final Rose about their breakup -- but "she deserves every one of those emotions."

Gerry explained, "[Leslie] was in the same process and the same boiler that I was, and so when she had to go home -- and all of that hurt was there -- and she didn't have a release for that, I was there to really accept anything she had to say."

The Golden Bachelor star said it was his "goal" to make Leslie "feel better when she left" the live show "than when she arrived."

But Gerry acknowledged how there was really nothing he could say to make Leslie feel better or to mend her broken heart.

"All of the apologies in the world don't really help her at that moment," Gerry said. "What does help is for her to get some of it off of her chest."

Gerry also insisted that if he could go back in time, he wouldn't course correct or change how he had handled Leslie before and after their split.

"I have no regrets there," Gerry said, even when considering the repercussions of having told Leslie that he was in love with her before dumping her.

"I had those emotions and those feelings in that moment, and I've said to Theresa, 'I believed that I was in love with these women until I knew I wasn't. And the moment I knew I wasn't, it was one thousand percent clear for me."

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)

Gerry added, "So I really can't say I have regrets. It's just part of the process that you have to go through."

Leslie explained to The Golden Bachelor host Jesse Palmer on After the Final Rose that because of Gerry's reassurance and validation, she had envisioned a life with Gerry after the show in which they'd walk his dog together and go out to restaurants, both in Indianapolis and Minneapolis.

"I was blindsided because I wasn't sure how it changed or what happened," Leslie subsequently recalled to Gerry on After the Final Rose, adding how she thought she had fit in wonderfully with his family.

"I feel like you painted a picture for me of what our life would look like... and I'd like to know what happened," she cried.

Gerry told Leslie that she was his person until he suddenly knew that she wasn't his person.

"It didn't really go wrong, Leslie, it was just better with someone else," Gerry said bluntly. "It was the right person in another direction, and I'm so terribly sorry. I'll never forgive myself for the pain I've caused along the way."

Leslie dropped tidbits about what Gerry had told her behind closed doors in the Fantasy Suite during the December 4 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.

"I don't want to say everything that he said, but it was 100 percent certainty when I woke up the next morning that I was going to be it."

Joe pointed out how Gerry had said in post-show press interviews that Gerry basically let Theresa know in the Fantasy Suite he was picking her and was going to propose marriage to her at the end.

"[Did he] propose to me? Well, he made plans with me for the future. He said, kind of like, 'Save the date. This is what we're going to do. I can't wait for us -- just two more days and we'll be done with this,'" Leslie recalled.

"[Gerry said], 'We'll be together and start our life.' Did he say in there, 'Will you marry me?' No. But he all BUT said that."

The 64-year-old fitness instructor from Minneapolis, MN, vented about how she "would've been happy with" a simple, "I love you" from Gerry.

"But he took it to a different level," Leslie claimed.

"And when we woke up the next morning and he left, he turned around three times and blew me kisses. He didn't want to leave, and that's why I wasn't worried that he was going on a date! I just knew that he had to get through the motions of it."

Leslie reiterated how she felt "100 percent sure" that she was "it" for Gerry.

"I mean, he didn't say, 'I have such a hard decision to make.' Nothing like that. So I just didn't think [he'd pick Theresa]," Leslie said.

She added, "We talked for hours, and there was so much I wanted to tell him about me. And he wanted to tell me about him... There were things he said to me in the overnight that alluded to his [next] overnight with Theresa, that it was not going to be the same."

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS