‘The Golden Bachelor’s Leslie Fhima Reacts To Devastating Breakup: “I Picked Out A Dress. I Wrote My Vows”

The Golden Bachelor‘s live finale included an extensive amount of drama, tears, heartbreak, and apologies. After Bachelor Nation watched 72-year-old lead Gerry Turner introduce his final two women (Theresa Nist and Leslie Fhima) to his family, he unexpectedly broke up with a completely blindsided Leslie on their final date ahead of proposal day.

After the devastating scene played out, host Jesse Palmer welcomed Gerry’s ex Leslie to the stage where she unpacked her post-finale emotions and confronted Gerry for the first time since leaving Costa Rica.

“The heartbreak that I experienced, the blindsidedness that happened to me, all those emotions watching it back I’m feeling that again…and I was devastated,” she told Jesse. “I was unapologetically myself through this whole thing and I was vulnerable, I wore my heart on my sleeve, I broke down my walls, and I fell in love with him so much. And I haven’t fallen in love with someone in a really long time so it was hard. It was really hard.”

Leslie explained up until overnight dates she was “100% certain” that I was Gerry’s girl. After she met his family she could tell that things felt different, but she wrote off his behavior as exhaustion. When Gerry came out on stage, Leslie said, “I’ve had a lot of time to process this all now. I’m much better than I was but I just want to tell you I fell in love with you for so many reasons…All I wanted to do was make you happy. I wanted to give you that til death do us part so bad and you helped me through that whole thing but the most important thing I fell in love with was your integrity.” Leslie went on to stress that because of Gerry’s integrity, she gave a lot of weight to his words and felt that what he said in the privacy of their Fantasy Suite unnecessarily led her on.

“Those words gave me 100% certainty that I was your girl and we were going to get engaged — so much so that I left that morning after you turned around and blew kisses to me knowing you had a date with Theresa. And I wasn’t jealous…I went and picked out a beautiful blue dress, the color of our eyes, I wrote my vows. It was the happiest day of my life except for the day I thought was coming. And your words just meant so much to me and that’s why I was blindsided, because I wasn’t sure how it changed or what happened.”

Leslie said that Gerry ultimately had the choice to choose his words more carefully, and he defended his actions by saying he wanted to give every person he was with his “complete commitment, undivided attention, and block out everyone else.”

“Because I did that I got caught up in moments. And in those moments I meant it…you were the person I believed was my person until I suddenly knew you weren’t,” he said. “I’ll never forgive myself for the pain that I caused along the way… I’m sorry.”

Leslie said she didn’t know if she accepted Gerry’s apology, but she understood it. And with that, the two said goodbye as Bachelor Nation geared up to watch Gerry get his happy ending with Theresa Nist.

Curious what else went down during The Golden Bachelor‘s finale and After The Final Rose special? Read Decider’s detailed episode recap and stream the finale on demand and on Hulu starting Friday, December 1.