‘The Golden Bachelor’: Faith Tells All About Why They Were Wrong for Each Other — and Why She Feels Like a Winner

So win or lose, he unlocked something in yourself that you hadn’t really even known about.

Absolutely. And not just that, but I feel like I left the show with all these little heart treasures. People say, “Well, do you regret it? Are you heartbroken?”

Are you?

I’m not gonna lie. Yeah, my heart hurts a little bit. But the gifts that he gave me in my heart that felt so special I will just hold right there and keep with me always, so I have no regrets.

Lots of guys date multiple women. He may be the only TV star who dates a lot at once — and tells them.

It did make me wonder, when you date a guy in the real world, is he really dating three or four other women and not telling you? It’s entirely possible. I love the fact that it was up front, that it was his job to explore relationships with all these women. And I love the fact that we all knew about it and could support each other in it, because it really wasn’t a competition, so to speak.

But it was a competition!

It was a “Hey, let’s find out truly who has the best connection, in the way that Gerry and they need to sustain a long-term relationship.” That’s not really a competitive thing. We might have been competing for time, but really, the person that’s right for another person — that’s not something you can compete with. It’s something that needs to be explored enough to find out the true relationship love. You know?

John Fleenor/ABC

Did you learn about what Gerry needs?

I got a great sense of what he needed. He’s very traditional, had been in love with one woman and [remained] married [to] her for 43 years. He grew up with a little more city-type life, even though he considers it rural. It’s not rural like I’m rural. I don’t see him hiking up in the mountains or backpacking. He might have been looking forward to somebody that had very similar activities, passions, traditional home life — Gerry’s very wise and he’s very logical, too. So I think he needed somebody that’s going to be very steady in the ways that maybe I’m not. I did not grow up in what’s considered a normal situation.

My life has been interesting and twisted, lots of turns and adventures and different things, and I’ve traveled a lot. And I love that about my life. My depth for and capacity for emotions run deep. And I often wondered, would Gerry have the emotional depth to be there for me when I was, you know, in a not-so-good place? Would we be able to relate and talk about things outside the box, which is what I’m so driven to do all the time?

I’m just not a very narrow-minded person that’s traditional. I’m very open to so many things. I think Gerry knew exactly what he was looking for. And hopefully he found it, but I don’t think that maybe I matched up in all those ways that he needed.

John Fleenor/ABC

If they make you the Golden Bachelorette on a spin-off show, what kind of man are you going to be looking for?

I definitely go for the artistic, creative types. I’m a musician, so I gotta say, we’re a weird bunch. And we feel a little deeper than a lot of people. Creative people just tend to feel a little more high and a little more low, and if you’re not in a compatible relationship, I don’t know if you ever feel like somebody fully understands you. And I was searching for that with Gerry and wondering if he had that capacity.

John Fleenor/ABC

Contestant Susan said that what Gerry needs is somebody who’s needy — not in a bad way, but somebody who’s very into him. Do you think that’s true?

I wouldn’t have said it that way. But I think that he appreciates feeling like, in that more traditional sense, that he has a woman to be at his side to maybe do three-meal-a-day cooking. I mean, I think he wants an equal partner, too, but I think he thinks it’s not a bad thing to feel needed or wanted.

I’m a very independent woman with a lot of hobbies and interests and passions. And that might have made him feel a little bit like he would be on the back burner, though I’ve never let any of the loves in my life feel like they’re on the back burner. But I don’t want to be somebody’s only hobby. I want them to have passions and interests and a life of their own, and I want to have amazing things to talk about at the table.

So I don’t want to be somebody’s everything, and I think that maybe he does want to be somebody’s everything.