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The Golden Bachelor's 'vicious' producers bashed over bridal photoshoots for widowed contestants

Contestant Nancy Hulkower breaks down during a bridal shoot on 'The Golden Bachelor'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: This week on 'The Golden Bachelor', Gerry Turner got to understand his golden beauties a bit better, but it also brought up some tremendous feelings.

The October 5 episode began with a flashback of one of the ladies weeping on a group date, and viewers couldn't help but criticize the producers for preparing a bridal photoshoot without taking widows' sentiments into account.

Gerry took 12 of the women on a date where they dressed as romance novel covers for a photoshoot. Gerry donned a flowing Fabio wig and a Seinfeld-inspired pirate shirt.

There were a few squabbles when Natascha Hardee snatched flower-child hippie clothing before Leslie Fhima could claim it, but they all laughed and had a nice time regardless.

However, fans witnessed Nancy Hulkower breaking down when she saw her wedding attire in one of the photo settings in the initial flash-forward.

On X, fans slammed the producers writing, "The only villain on the show this season is the producer making Gerry drive on the highway with no headlights and making the women re-experience the trauma of losing their husbands by putting them in wedding dresses."

Another person chimed in, "Producers chose the wedding dresses on purpose and HOW DARE THEY! Put a lot of widowers in wedding dresses is a horrible thing to do." "Producers are vicious AF putting widows in wedding dresses," wrote another. A fourth user noted, "Producers was wildin this episode. The bunk beds, the night time driving, the WEDDING DRESS!"

On Reddit, fans noted, "Putting widows in wedding dresses is maybe the most I’ve hated the producers (since they put an old man in a questionable car on the highway at night 20 minutes ago)."

Another person chimed in, "The wedding dress photo shoot was a decision, given how so many of them are widows." "Production are stupid and lack empathy fr," wrote another. One user further noted, "Feels cruel especially with widows 😭."

Who was 'The Golden Bachelor' star Nancy Hulkower married to?

Nancy, 60, a retired interior designer from Alexandria, Virginia was married to eminent Washington lawyer Mark J Hulkower.

Mark was born in New York's Bronx. He graduated from Cornell University and worked as the legal journal editor at Georgetown University's Law School.

He rose to prominence as an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1989 to 1995.

Furthermore, he played a key role in three high-profile judicial challenges, including the case of Marine Frank Nesbitt, who was accused of leaking national secrets to Russia.

He was appointed by the Justice Department to be the prosecutor in the espionage case against CIA defector Aldrich Ames and his wife because of his remarkable legal career.

Following his public service, Mark founded his own law firm, Steptoe and Johnson LLC, where he led the firm's white-collar criminal defense division.

Mark died in 2011 at the age of 53 from colon cancer. Nancy established a cancer charity in her late husband's honor. 

Who was 'The Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner married to?

Gerry and his late wife Toni spent most of their marriage years in Iowa. The 72-year-old Iowa grandfather now lives on a lake in Indiana.

He and Toni, his wife of 43 years, spent a considerable chunk of their marriage in the Quad Cities before Toni died in 2017 from an unexpected illness.

'The Golden Bachelor' airs every Thursday on ABC at 8 pm ET.