The first “The Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner and the final golden rose recipient Theresa Nist divorced April 2023 after saying “I do” just three months before. A brewing feud has developed as Turner’s book release slammed Nist in November of 2025.
The first golden bachelor Gerry Turner and final golden rose recipient Theresa Nist called it quits after their televised wedding in January 2023. They announced their divorce just four months after the historic moment for Bachelor Nation.
The ghost of the relationship reappeared in Nov. 2025 after Turner released his memoir entitled “The Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV.” In the novel, he writes about his short-lived relationship with Nist, leading to a divide among Bachelor Nation fans. What happened between the two ex-lovebirds, and can Bachelor Nation still hold their goal for showing the U.S. that seniors can still find love despite their seniority?
Hold on, what’s the rundown?
“The Golden Bachelor” is a part of “The Bachelor” franchise, a dating show centered around finding “the one” — typically ending with an engagement at the end of the season. The premise of the show is to showcase senior dating, casting men and women 65+ years old. Calls for casting began in 2020, but the pandemic delayed production until 2023. The leads and contestants of “The Golden Bachelor” and “The Golden Bachelorette” seasons have worked on breaking down perceptions that the public may have on seniors, and that it’s never too late to find love.
“I think there is a stereotype that is imposed on people of a certain age that we’ve slowed down mentally and physically, and that we don’t accept challenges,” Turner said in a promotional interview for the first season. “That is something that I really want to change opinion on.”
Turner, a now 74-year-old retired restaurateur from Indiana, was first announced as the first golden bachelor on season 20 of “The Bachelorette” at Charity Lawson’s “After the Rose” episode. He explained in the episode that what he was looking for in a relationship at age 70 is much different from what he was looking for in high school and college. He believed he would find a new person that would make him whole again, but that it wouldn’t necessarily look like his previous relationship with Toni, his high school sweetheart and first wife of 43 years.
The show received the highest viewer counts since 2021, whose seasons included “The Bachelor” season 25 Matt James and “The Bachelorette” season 17 Katie Thurston.
That “Look in the Eye”
Bachelor Nation host Jesse Palmer asked Turner about advice he had regarding couples who are looking for a long-lasting, happy marriage. Turner responded by saying, “if there is one thing that I would tell you, or anyone else, (is to) look at your spouse every day and tell them you love them. The day comes too soon for one of you that you can’t do that.”
Turner’s first wife passed away unexpectedly in 2017 due to a bacterial infection. Applying what Turner gained from his first marriage, he defined what love meant to him. He said in an exclusive Entertainment Tonight interview during filming the season that he thought if he found the right person, the one thing he was going to look for was “that look in the eye.”
“I’ve seen it before, and I know the feeling when it’s there,” Turner said. “If I see that, that’s going to be the person that I’m going to probably pursue.”
He further elaborated in the opening of the first episode that “love is the feeling I get when someone looks me in the eye and doesn’t have to say a single thing — and I know the feeling is there.”
“The Golden Bachelor” found “the one” among the women with Nist, a now 72-year-old financial services professional from New Jersey. The two married in a live wedding special on Jan. 4, 2024. The “look in the eye” did not seem to last long, as the two announced their divorce in April 2024.
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The Bash Book
Turner’s memoir outlines several eras within his life, including the feelings of losing his high school sweetheart and his experience being the first golden bachelor. Among the chapters, he was very transparent in his experience with he and Nist’s three married months.
He further admitted to having “cold feet” just before the wedding, and that he sensed some distrust with Nist after her hesitations with signing for a prenup.
“Two days before the wedding, I got a frantic call from my lawyer saying the document was not executable. One of her signatures was missing,” Turner said in his memoir.
Apart from the hesitations made just before the wedding, one of the largest dealbreakers for Turner was the lack of intimacy in their relationship. The most notable story pulled from this chapter stems from a trip to Nist’s home shortly after their wedding. Nist had asked Turner to sleep on the couch, which had made him a bit bitter as his trip continued on.
“My first night at her house, she took out sheets and pillows before telling me, ‘Tomorrow’s a big workday. I need a good night’s sleep. Do you mind sleeping on the sofa?’” Turner claims Nist had said in their first night together post-“The Golden Bachelor.”
Other claims made included Nist’s small home, where she used her kitchen counter as a vanity due to lack of space, and overall different living preferences. He mentioned his bone cancer diagnosis in 2024 did not lead to Nist following up about his health.
Nist Responds Back
Nist responded to the book’s release in an exclusive Dear Shandy Podcast episode. Dear Shandy podcast hosts Andy Levine and Sharleen Joynt welcomed Nist on their podcast to give her perspective on Turner’s comments made in the book.
“This doesn’t feel like a man who loves me,” Nist said of Turner in the first few minutes of the podcast. She further recounts the season of “The Golden Bachelor,” and how she didn’t feel like she was in the running compared to “The Golden Bachelor” contestant Leslie Fhima.
Turner brings Fhima up in the book numerous times, Joynt says, and creates a theme of a regret of choosing Nist and a wish for Fhima’s hand instead.
“He says it (the marriage) was out of a sense of obligation,” Nist said in the podcast episode. “I don’t need a man obligated to me.”
Their physical intimacy was discussed, as Nist described a different story than Turner wrote.
“It was actually quite the opposite,” Nist said. She continued to say that her master bedroom had been transformed into an office, leading her room to be a side bedroom and a full-sized bed. Nist claimed she had not slept well that first night Turner visited, and he had offered to sleep on the couch. Nist said that she had bought a king sized bed for Turner’s next visit and sent progress updates, but he had never returned to her home.
“The Look” into Future Seniors Looking for Love
Nist’s parting words to Turner in the podcast interview led to her claiming that Turner did her no favors in marrying her, and wishes that he had called off the wedding.
“He is a good person. But he did have a very bad temper, and he did call me names. And he did put me down, and I couldn’t understand why he was doing it,” Nist said. “And it makes so much sense now. He didn’t want to marry me, and that’s the bottom line.”
Season two of “The Golden Bachelor” lead Mel Owens did not conclude with a happy proposal and marriage at the end of the season either. Owens gave his final golden rose recipient a promise ring as opposed to an engagement ring.
Owens, aged 66, was involved in previous controversy as he stated on the MGoBlue podcast that his ideal age range for his women would be 45-60, and for the producers to select women who did not wear wigs or had artificial wigs. This led to an uproar in Bachelor Nation, and he apologized for his insensitive comments just before the first rose ceremony of the season.
Can seniors still find love? I would like to believe that it’s still possible. First “Golden Bachelorette” Joan Vassos and final rose recipient Chock Chapple are still together, showing that the franchise’s process can still work — but maybe only with the “Golden Bachelorette” seasons.
Turner recently proposed to Lana Sutton, announcing it in an Instagram post on Oct. 3. Nist hinted at a new relationship in the Almost Famous Podcast in the summer of 2025. The two have appeared to move their separate ways amidst the drama from Turner’s book.
Now “The Look” Forwards
There has been no official announcement for season two of “The Golden Bachelorette” but there are many speculations of the season premiering in 2026. You can rewatch Owens’ season or highlights from the seniors on “Bachelor in Paradise” on Hulu, while waiting for Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.”
