‘The Golden Girls’: 1 Love Interest Proves Divisive Decades After the Show’s Finale

Rose Nylund, Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, and Sophia Petrillo dated a fair bit during the seven-season run of ‘The Golden Girls’. Most of their romances were short-lived, and fans can barely pick out most of the ladies’ lovers. One romantic partner, however, is memorable and rather divisive. Some fans love him, and others hate him.

At first glance, The Golden Girls doesn’t seem like a show about romance. At its core, it wasn’t. The series, which ran from 1985 until 1992, was really about friendship and the dynamics of four women living in a house together. Still, the four main characters did a fair bit of dating, too, and it wasn’t just Blanche Devereaux who brought home suitors. Dorothy Zbornak, Rose Nylund, and Sophia Petrillo all dated fairly actively, as well. Of all the men that walked in and out of their lives, there is just one that fans still find divisive almost 30 years after the show’s finale.

How many men did ‘The Golden Girls’ characters actually date?

The Golden Girls might not have been about love and dating, but the show’s four Miami residents still found a fair bit of romance. Refinery 29 did the math and found that Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, and Sophia dated more than 200 different men over the show’s seven-season run.

Blanche was the character with the most lovers. She is said to have dated 165 different guys. Blanche wasn’t the first member of the household to have sex on The Golden Girls, though. That distinction goes to Rose, who slept with Arnie in episode 3 of the series. Rose dated 29 different men during the show’s run but dated extensively before marrying Charlie Nylund. Dorothy ended up marrying Lucas Hollingsworth at the end of The Golden Girls. Still, she needed to date 45 men (including her ex-husband) to finally get her happy ending. Sophia Petrillo took the fewest lovers. The octogenarian with zero filter reportedly dated 24 different men, if you exclude her late husband.

Fans think Miles Webber is the most divisive male suitor

It might be easy to assume that Dorothy’s troubled ex-husband, Stan Zbornak, is the most divisive male suitor ever to grace the screen in The Golden Girls. That’s not true, though—fans of the series largely enjoy Stan and his somewhat charming attempts to woo back his ex-wife. They have mixed feelings about Rose’s long-term love interest, Miles Webber, instead.

Miles and Rose first hooked up in season 5 of The Golden Girls. Their relationship ran mostly smoothly until Miles was forced to reveal that his name was Nicholas Carbone and that he was in the Witness Protection Program. It eventually gets worked out, but some fans who dislike Rose and Miles found the storyline strange. Aside from that, Reddit fans argue that Miles and Rose had no real chemistry and that the character was a bit bland despite his complicated origin story.

Some fans hate Miles Webber after the show’s failed spinoff, ‘The Golden Palace’

The Golden Girls fans are fairly split on Miles’ character during the show’s original run. Some fans hate him, and others loved his dynamic with Rose, although most agree that his witness protection subplot was a bit convoluted. Even Miles apologists can agree that his behavior in The Golden Palace, the show’s failed spinoff was problematic, though.

In the spinoff, Blanche discovers that a man named Miles Webber had stayed at the hotel regularly before Blanche, Rose, and Sophia purchased it. She assumes Miles is cheating on Rose and tells her. Miles insists it isn’t him but later reveals that he’s fallen in love with another woman. Later, unknowingly, Rose helps Miles’ new love plan their wedding. The wedding proved that Miles was cheating on Rose with Fern at the hotel once and for all.

Fans largely hate how Miles was portrayed in The Golden Palace. They simply can’t forgive him for his poor treatment of the ever-sweet Rose. Still, fans are also convinced that Miles and Rose never actually belonged together. The naive widow often admitted that Charlie Nylund was her real, true love.