The Truth About Golden Bachelor Stars Gerry Turner And Theresa Nist's Divorce

"The Bachelor" franchise has been on the air since 2002, and it wasn't until 2023 that it got its first older batch of contestants looking for love in what was called "The Golden Bachelor" with Gerry Turner, who was 71 years old at the time, as the lead. That season led to a live, on-air wedding between Turner and Theresa Nist in January 2024; adding to the list of extravagant Bachelor Nation weddings.

However, by April 2024, the two had filed for divorce (we have to admit, there were signs that Turner and Nist's marriage wouldn't last). The two haven't publicly talked much about the split after they appeared together on "Good Morning America" to announce their divorce to the world; however, what we have heard from them makes it sound like it was both the speed of their relationship and where they would live (and who would have to leave family behind) that were two major factors in their split.

On a November 2024 episode of the "Almost Famous" podcast, hosted by former Bachelor Ben Higgins (from Season 11 of "The Bachelorette and Season 20 of "The Bachelor") and Ashley Iaconetti (from Season 19 of "The Bachelor" and multiple seasons of "Bachelor in Paradise"), Nist talked about how little she knew about Turner, which was not a recipe for relationship success. "You really can't know somebody in four weeks," Nist explained."I'll just say that. That's all I can say. [...] It's not just the location thing."

On the podcast, Theresa Nist confirmed that the filming for "The Golden Bachelor" took place over just four weeks, and she'd really just been on one date alone with Turner before they decided to get married. That meant that the show was on the air for over twice as long as they filmed; it first aired near the end of September 2023 and the finale was at the end of November.

We don't know exactly what they ended up finding out about each other after the wedding, but whatever it was, when you combined that with the issues over where they would live, there was no way forward. During their joint "Good Morning America" appearance where they announced their divorce, distance was the main factor they talked about. "Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we've looked closely at our situation, our living situation and so forth, and we've kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it's probably time for us to dissolve our marriage," Turner said.

For some context, Nist lives in New Jersey and Turner lives in Indiana. Neither seemed willing to uproot and move to be with the other, nor to move somewhere new together; though they had spent time looking at houses in Charleston, South Carolina together after getting married, and that was what Nist had thought was the plan.

Theresa Nist talked on the podcast about how Gerry Turner had apparently proposed the idea of being able to live for six weeks at a time in their current homes, moving between them and not moving to Charleston, South Carolina together. However, Nist said she'd wanted to have a home for them together, so the plan of having two houses in different states just wasn't going to work for her. Ben Higgins also asked Nist about the rumor that he'd heard (and then helped perpetuate) that Nist and Turner split up after an argument about Indiana. 

The way Nist described the supposed relationship-ending argument that she actually had with Turner, it seems like there might have been some personality or cultural mismatch between them to add to the disagreement on where they'd live. Nist said that it happened when she was driving with Turner to see his Indiana home, and she commented on seeing what she thought was "flat land," not realizing that it was valuable farmland. "I go, oh, wow, you could build town homes there," Nist said, "That's all I said. And Gary said, 'Oh, so you want to take the farmer's land away from him.' I go, note to self, don't say that again." She recalled Turner seemed annoyed she didn't know how important farmland was to Midwesterners.

It does sound like there are more specifics to their split, but we may not ever know the whole story. We hope they're each able to find love again, but perhaps they should date someone longer (and who lives closer) before they tie the knot for a third time.