The Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist to Divorce After Three Months of Marriage
Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist will not live happily ever after.
The Golden Bachelor couple announced on Friday’s Good Morning America that they are filing for divorce after three months of marriage.
Turner and Nist tied the knot in a live, televised wedding ceremony — aptly titled The Golden Wedding — on Jan. 4. Alas, it was not meant to be.
“We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched The Golden Bachelor, and I don’t think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,” Nist told GMA’s Juju Chang. “We want none of that to change for anybody.”
It was then up to Turner to deliver the heart-wrenching news. “Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth… and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to… dissolve our marriage,” he said.
“The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations [has] been how dedicated both of us are to our families,” Turner continued. “So we look at these situations, and I think we just feel like it’s best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.”
According to the Turner and Nist, the choice to consciously uncouple came down to an inability to agree on where to live. “We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at home after home,” Nist explained. “We never got to the point where we made that decision.”
Despite their divorce, Turner and Nist insisted that they had not fallen out of love. “I still love this person,” Turner declared. “There is no doubt in my mind. I still am in love with her. I root for her every day.”
They might have to forfeit their wedding rings, Turner acknowledged, but they’d “never have to give up the memories.”
The Bachelorette: How Long Each Couple Lasted, From Shortest to Longest
The Golden Bachelor, with 71-year-old widow Gerry Turner looking for love among a cast of women aged 60 and up, debuted in September and became a surprise hit, with the series premiere accumulating 13.9 million total viewers after a month of linear and streaming viewing.
In the dramatic two-hour season finale, Turner made the painful decision to end things with Leslie Fhima in favor of a future with Nist. A heartbroken Fhima then confronted Turner in front of a live, studio audience.
News of their breakup comes two months after ABC gave the green light to a spinoff, The Golden Bachelorette, which will debut this fall (premiere date TBD).
Watch Turner and Nist’s divorce announcement (via Good Morning America) below, then hit the comments with your reactions to the news.
