Golden Bachelor’s Theresa Nist, who split from the show’s inaugural lead Gerry Turner in April after three months of marriage, shared why their romance couldn’t last for more reasons than the distance
Theresa Nist and Gerry Turner’s relationship couldn’t go the distance.
But the former Golden Bachelor contestant recently admitted that the couple’s divorce—which was finalized in June after their April separation—wasn’t only due to their inability to decide on where to start their lives together.
“It’s not just the location thing,” Theresa, 71, confessed during the Nov. 4 episode of the Almost Famous podcast. “You really can’t know someone in four weeks. I’ll just say that. That’s all I can say. I don’t want to say any more than that.”
And when host Ashley Iaconetti posited whether the four weeks occurred during filming for the inaugural season of the Golden Bachelor—which ran from September to November 2023—or after cameras stopped rolling, Theresa noted that it occurred during the latter.
As she and Gerry “got to know each other better” following their on-camera engagement, Theresa began to realize how little she knew Gerry prior to their marriage.
In fact, she recalled her daughter Jen Wooltson’s 6-year-old son Henry telling her just before her televised January wedding ceremony, “‘I just thought of this, you had one date and you’re getting married!’”
The former reality star emphasized that she and Gerry, 72, went into their wedding with honest intentions—but their rapid timeline between engagement and nuptials was encouraged by calls from the network.
“I went into this really looking to fall in love and I did,” she added, noting that the free wedding ceremony from ABC incentivized their quick commitment. “We said, ‘Okay they’re offering this to us now’ Not later—it was now. And we said, ‘If we really are going to get married, we should do it because we’re going to get the wedding of our dreams. And we are older and why waste any time? Do it now.’”
Although Theresa said the wedding—which included several Bachelor Nation alums on the guest list—was “gorgeous,” the cracks in her and Gerry’s relationship quickly became clear.
Indeed, their breakup did partially stem from the distance, a sentiment they shared in April when they announced their separation. After all, Gerry had suggested a change to their initial plans of settling down in Charleston, expressing desire to split their time between the South Carolina town and his own home in Indiana.
“I didn’t want to go back and forth,” Theresa recalled. “I wanted to have an established base with a beautiful home together with Gerry and then go visit our children.”
While the disagreement ultimately turned into a dealbreaker, Theresa respected Gerry’s decision to maintain ties in Indiana, adding, “He loves his house and I don’t blame him.”
However, Theresa said the spark in their romance went out with Gerry’s new idea for their forever home.
“It wasn’t what we had discussed,” she added. “It did change.”
Theresa and Gerry aren’t the only Bachelor Nation couple to call it quits after the final rose is handed out. Keep reading for a status update on every romance.
Peg Munson & Mel Owens
Even before Mel Owen’s season of The Golden Bachelor kicked off, he was hit with a few penalties after going on the MGoBlue Podcasts With Jon Jansen and insisting, “if they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them,” adding that he wanted them to “try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs.”
And while his forever teammate Peg Munson is a fellow sexagenarian, his connection with the retired firefighter and bomb tech is quite explosive, the former NFL linebacker praising her as “high-energy” to Glamour.
Though he didn’t take a knee during his November 2025 finale, the sports lawyer still offered up a Neil Lane sparkler, saying, “This represents our commitment to love, to give us time to figure out together what our future holds.”