Golden Bachelor's Leslie plans to be less 'picky' about the men she dates
Published on January 15, 2026 EDT The 65-year-old fitness instructor talked dating, divorce, and "The Golden Bachelorette" while attending "The Golden Wedding."

Though Leslie Fhima's "journey" to find love on The Golden Bachelor ended in tears, the 65-year-old from Minneapolis says she took some valuable lessons away from the experience.

"I haven’t dated at all since the show," Fhima said, speaking to EW at Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist's Golden Wedding reception Thursday evening. When she does get back out there, the fitness instructor said she has some new dating goals in mind. "I think I will be more open. I won't be so picky," she explained. "I used to always want the guy that would snowboard with me and go to rock concerts with me, everything — but now I don’t need everything. I just want the most important things."

ABC

Like many of the other Golden Bachelor women, Leslie said she's received some weird DMs, but more importantly, she's also received a lot of encouragement and love from fans after her devastating breakup with Gerry on the finale.

"I felt the support so much," she said. "Especially after the finale, people would message me about how they felt my pain, or they’d gone through the same thing, or they’d been divorced twice. I was shocked, because at first I thought that being divorced was a stigma, but there’s a lot of divorced women out there."

Now that she's back on the market, speculation is rampant that she will be first-ever Golden Bachelorette. When asked if she'd be interested in the gig, her answer was brief and definitive: "Yeah, I would."

Your move, ABC.

The Golden Wedding is streaming now on Hulu.

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