Leslie Fhima Sets the Record Straight on Relationship Wit…

Minnesota fitness instructor Leslie Fhima was the runner-up on Gerry Turner’s season of The Golden Bachelor.

Who can forget her collapsing in tears after Turner rejected Fhima for Theresa Nist? Many fans of Bachelor Nation are hoping Fhima gets a happy ending.

Fhima and Gary Levingston, a contestant on Joan Vassos’s season of The Golden Bachelorette, developed a connection on the 10th season of Bachelor in Paradise.

However, they were sent home before they really had a chance to test their bond because Levingston made a mistake in a betting game. So, did Fhima and Levingston continue their connection after they went home?

Fhima clarified the status of their relationship in an episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast.

“We talk all the time. We talk, we were at the premiere together watching the show in L.A.,” Fhima said on the podcast. “Gary is, I can honestly say, right now one of my best friends. I mean he is. I’ll call him if I have a problem, and he kind of talks me off the ledge a little bit, we’re always there for each other, we have each other’s backs.”

But are they dating?

She isn’t sure where their relationship currently stands.

“I don’t know, because we haven’t spent time together,” she said on the podcast. “We live in two separate cities — I don’t know what it could be. All I know is that for me, a big thing with any relationship, a romantic one for sure, is I want to be friends first. Because I want to be with my best friend growing older.”

Whether they will just remain friends is unclear, though.

“That is a huge thing for me, and I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I know that we have special places in our hearts for each other and that’s all I can say right now,” she said on the podcast.