Real-Life Love
Did ‘Bachelor in Paradise’s Leslie Fhima Really Date Prince? All About Her Relationship History
Since making her debut on The Golden Bachelor Season 1, Leslie Fhima has made headlines. In fact, the personal trainer even made a splash on day one of the show, when she claimed that she inspired a Prince song. (“Sexy Dancer,” if you were curious.) She even said she had a relationship with the late musician.
Now that the 65-year-old reality star is staging a comeback in Bachelor in Paradise Season 10, we decided to revisit Leslie’s entire dating history. Need a refresher on what happened between her and Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner? Was there any validity behind the rumors that Leslie dated another man in the franchise? Find out below.
Did Leslie Fhima date Prince?
If you were to ask Leslie, she and the singer were an item at one point. She provided more details during a December 2023 episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, saying that they first met through her cousin Bobby Z. The musician and record producer was a drummer in Prince’s band, The Revolution.
“So, Bobby introduced us and, I mean, we’re the same age, and we were 18, and he was amazing,” she said. “And I’d go to his house and he’d play guitar and sing for me. And, you know, he was an amazing person, and people think he’s so quiet, but he’s hysterical. He was just really funny. Again, the humor I love.”
What happened between Leslie Fhima and Gerry Turner?
Fans probably remember that Leslie was a runner-up on Gerry’s season of The Golden Bachelor. During the After the Final Rose segment, Leslie recalled how shocked she was by Gerry’s decision to end things and propose to costar Theresa Nist instead. According to Leslie, Gerry misled her during their overnight discussions.
“It’s our private time, but those words gave me 100 percent certainty that I was your girl,” she said. “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.”
Gerry apologized to his ex during the segment. “You asked, or you mentioned, you don’t know where it went wrong,” he explained. “It didn’t really go wrong, Leslie. It just was better with someone else. It was the right person in another direction.”
Leslie didn’t forgive him then, but she said she understood it. Gerry confirmed that he had patched things up with his Fhima, who attended Gerry and Theresa’s Golden Wedding special, on the Almost Famous podcast a couple of months later. “We were able to hug and say, ‘OK, what has happened is in the past and so forth,’” he said.
Gerry and Theresa ended up divorcing three months into their marriage, but Leslie shut down any possibility of striking things up again with her old flame. “No,” she said on the Playing the Field podcast. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, I hate the guy.’ I was in love with him. I care a lot about him. But A, I’m no one’s second choice. Ever. And B, that window is closed for me.”
Did Leslie Fhima and Golden Bachelorette’s Jordan Heller date?
Dating rumors swirled when Leslie and Jordan were in each others’ company at an October 2o24 Los Angeles Football Club game. But even though they spend time together and talk “a lot,” according to the latter, the two haven’t been romantic with each other.
Heller denied that they dated more concretely, while Fhima was more ambiguous. “We’re just friends right now,” she said on the BachMakers podcast. “Who knows what is going to happen?”
Who was Leslie Fhima married to?
Fhima hasn’t always been single. She was married twice before, and both relationships ended in divorce. She wed Minneapolis-based chef David Fhima in 1990. They had two kids, Chloe and Elijah. Before that, she had tied the knot with Bradley Chazin, a Minneapolis-based builder and contractor, who fathered her eldest son, Zack.
“With Brad and I, we were just really young,” she explained on Bachelor Happy Hour. “We kind of just became different. I don’t like to say ‘grew apart.’ But if I needed something in the middle of the night, if I called him, he’d help me. I’m very good friends with his siblings and his cousins. Minneapolis is a small big town, so everybody knows each other.”
Infidelity was the reason behind her second divorce. “I tried to keep my family together as long as I possibly could knowing what was going on,” she added. “I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to stay married. That was all I wanted — was to be a wife, a mother, have a home, and have it all.”
Bachelor in Paradise, Season 10, Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
