Sandra Mason may not have captured the final rose on The Golden Bachelor (she was eliminated on the Thursday, October 26 episode), but she sure made the most of her time week after week.
Whether it was the calming way she said “fuck,” or her decision to ignore the fact that she’s lactose-intolerant to play Never Have I Ever, the 75-year-old retired executive assistant from Doraville, Georgia (and former Wheel of Fortune champ!) made sure that Indiana widower Gerry Turner would never forget her.
And how could he? For goodness sake, she missed her daughter’s wedding to compete in a pickleball championship on the show! Okay, that might be stretching it, but she did indeed skip the big day to stay on The Golden Bachelor. During her time alone with Gerry, she explained that her daughter said since she already found her guy, now it was time for her mother to find hers.
Except given how much Gerry values family, he certainly would have understood if Sandra wanted to leave for 36 hours. Or more so, why didn’t she pull a Nancy and in so many words say to Gerry that if he didn’t see her at the end, now would be the time to send her home?
“My kids would’ve been very angry with me had I done that,” she tells Glamour in response to those questions. “My son-in-law said, ‘Mom, marriage is for life. A wedding is eight minutes. Go’. They would’ve been upset with me had I stayed for that wedding.”
When pressed about whether she even asked to leave for a couple days and then return, Sandra says the thought never crossed her mind. “My kids would not have approved. They were very emphatic about me going on this venture. They’re in their fifties, second marriage. [My son-in-law]’s a father and a grandfather. It’s not like the very first where your daughter’s walking down the aisle with a white dress on. So I [stayed] for very good reasons.”
