Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner and his wife Theresa Nist have announced their divorce after just three months of marriage.
According to Good Morning America – which airs on ABC, the same channel as the Bachelor franchise – Gerry, 72, and Theresa, 70, have made the decision to end their marriage, with the couple opening up about their breakup in an interview on the morning show today.
“Theresa and I had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we took a hard look at our situation, our living situation, etc. and – and we kind of came to the mutual conclusion that it was probably time for us to…dissolve our marriage,” Gerry told host Juju Chang.
He admitted their decision to split was driven largely by their “dedication” to their respective families – implying that this made it incredibly difficult for them to decide on somewhere to settle down together.
Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner and his wife Theresa Nist have announced their divorce after just three months of marriage.
Gerry, 72, and Theresa, 70, married in a televised ceremony in January – but just three months later they confirmed they were “dissolving” their marriage.
“We kind of came to the mutual conclusion that it’s probably time for us to dissolve our marriage,” Gerry said during an interview with GMA today.
Both Gerry and Theresa have children from past relationships. He has two daughters and two granddaughters, while she has a son, a daughter and six grandsons.
“What strikes me most about our conversations is how devoted we both are to our families,” Gerry explained.
“So we look at these situations and I think we think it’s best for the happiness of each of us to live separately.”
However, Theresa insisted the former couple had done their best to reach a compromise that would work for both their families, revealing they had looked at different locations across the country in the hope of finding a home ideal for starting their new life together.
“We looked at houses in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at house after house, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,” she said.
“We’ve received so much love and support from so many people who have watched The Golden Bachelor, and I don’t think we can tell you how many people have told us it gives them so much hope.” , added Theresa. “We don’t want any of this to change for anyone.”
The couple met on the first season of Golden Bachelor, which premiered late last year, and Gerry proposed during the series finale. They then married in January in a televised wedding.
Gerry and Theresa’s shock announcement comes just days after it was revealed the couple were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials.
He admitted their decision to separate was driven largely by their “dedication” to their respective families.
It appears the couple struggled to decide on a place to settle down together and were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials.
Additionally, TMZ reported that the married couple actually resided in separate states — with Gerry living at her lake house in northern Indiana, while Theresa stayed at her New Jersey home, where she lived with his family.
“The problem is Theresa can’t just pick up and quit her job, and she has family in New Jersey,” a source recently told Life & Style.
“Initially they thought Gerry might move in with her, but that didn’t happen.”
In 2023, Gerry admitted finding accommodation was “a big problem” for them.
At the time, he told People that they were planning to buy a house together in Charleston, South Carolina — but it appears that never happened.
“All of a sudden it’s like a big problem is gone,” he said at the time. “The question of compromise on where to live and how to reconcile families and everything else is no longer an issue.”
Gerry touched the hearts of millions as he was introduced as a loving retired restaurateur who hadn’t had a single date since his wife of 45 years, Toni, died suddenly of an infection in 2017.
But a Hollywood Reporter investigation published after the finale shattered that reputation.
The publication reported that he had a professional and personal history that didn’t fit the personality of a grieving man who hadn’t been on a first date in decades.
Instead, he claimed he had a secret past that included a three-year relationship after his wife’s death and various blue-collar jobs.
He allegedly dated a woman named Carolyn, who is 14 years his junior, and claimed to have abandoned her because she gained 10 pounds.
Additionally, his LinkedIn profile showed that he hadn’t owned a restaurant since 1985, when he sold his Mr. Quick hamburger franchise in Iowa, where he had worked his way up from high school.
Since then, he has held various sales and management positions in the meat industry, according to his resume on the website – despite the show claiming he had been retired for decades.
After selling his restaurant, Gerry worked in spa installation and as a maintenance man in Iowa.
It was while he was a maintenance worker at the Vera French Mental Health Center in Davenport that he met Carolyn, but the two didn’t reunite until two months after his wife’s death.
Carolyn told The Hollywood Reporter that the two began dating after Gerry called her after his wife’s death to ask for help donating clothes to charity.
She claimed she left her job to move in with him in July 2018, but things quickly turned sour as her claims began to emerge.
For example, she alleged that he quickly informed Carolyn that she would have to pay approximately $1,000 per month for her share of expenses, which she managed to negotiate down to $850.
Gerry was reportedly so concerned about cost-sharing that Carolyn paid for his restaurant meals in advance so that when the check arrived, he could claim he was paying the entire bill.
The reality star was also reportedly obsessed with cleanliness and asked Carolyn to make the bed every morning before eating breakfast.
The romance ended in late 2019, when, according to Carolyn, Gerry said he wouldn’t take her to his high school reunion because of her weight.
The Golden Bachelor then allegedly told Carolyn she had to leave the house by January 1, 2020, according to THR, which reviewed emails and text messages between the former couple and spoke to people who witnessed the relationship.
Carolyn fell down the stairs while packing and had to undergo emergency surgery – but said Gerry accused her of using the fall as an excuse to prolong her stay at his place and claimed that She planned to sue him for it.
He wouldn’t even let her stay home while she completed her two weeks’ notice for her new job in Indiana, forcing her to stay in a hotel, she claimed. .
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