Calling all ladies, gentlemen, and Golden Bachelor fans of all ages — it’s official. After just three months of marriage and a televised Golden Wedding, inaugural Golden couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist have called it quits.
Turner, a 72-year-old restaurant owner from Indiana, thought he’d found his perfect match in Nist, a 70-year-old financial services professional from New Jersey, on season 1 of The Golden Bachelor; he even deemed her to be the woman whom he “cannot live without” during the highly-anticipated finale. Breaking Leslie Fhima‘s heart and proposing to Theresa with a Neil Lane ring, things seemed to be smooth sailing between the two lovebirds ⏤ that is, until they stepped back into the limelight to make their gut-wrenching divorce announcement on April 12 on Good Morning America.
After holding hands with one another during the entirety of the announcement and admitting that they will continue to love each other, why is the not-so-happy couple splitting after just three months of marriage?
Why are Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist getting a divorce?
Believe it or not, the reason for their split has to do with their living decision, despite making plans to move to Charleston, South Carolina with one another post-show. “One of the things that I think fate played a hand in is the possibility of where we might wind up living. For the last couple of years, when my family gets together, I’ve talked about moving to South Carolina, and it’s an idea I’ve toyed with, and then in conversation with Theresa, a private moment, she’s saying, ‘Well, yeah, my son lives near Charleston in South Carolina,'” Turner previously told PEOPLE. It looks like plans, however, went awry.
After looking at their living situation and having numerous heart-to-heart conversations, Turner told GMA viewers that he and Nist came to the conclusion that getting a divorce would be best, living closer to their families, respectively.
“We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at homes after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,” Nist explained, assuring Bachelor fans that this has nothing to do with their love for one another, which was made possible by the beloved competition series. “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. We want none of that to change for anybody.”
Now that they have officially split, will this be Gerry’s chance to rekindle an old flame with runner-up Leslie Fhima? We’ll have to wait and see where things go from here, but it’s safe to say that we’ll be keeping up with both parties on social media for all of the impending nitty-gritty details…
