Golden Bachelor Exes Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist Are Feuding: Here’s Everything They’ve Said About the Downfall of Their Marriage

Gerry Turner—formerly the lead on the first season of The Golden Bachelor (which features older participants in the “Bachelor”‐franchise format)—has released his memoir titled Golden Years: What I’ve Learned From Love, Loss and Reality TV, in which he offers what he describes as the unedited version of his life: his journey through widowhood, dating in his later years, sudden television fame, and a whirlwind marriage that ended almost as quickly as it began. 

Here are key elements of his version of events:

• Gerry had been widowed (his 43-year marriage ended when his high school sweetheart died) and entered the show seeking connection and maybe a new chapter of his life.  
• On the show, he chose Theresa Nist as his final pick and they married in January 2024 in a televised live wedding special.  
• In his memoir he recounts feelings of doubt, pressure, and suspicion about the relationship timing and motivations: he claims he felt “trapped” leading up to the wedding.  
• Gerry says that their differences were more substantial once the cameras were off: lifestyle mismatches (for example, where to live, retirement vs continuing to work), emotional distance early in married life (such as him being asked—or feeling obliged—to sleep on the couch during initial visits).  
• He also reveals the revelation of a serious health diagnosis: Gerry discloses that he was diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia (a form of bone-marrow cancer) during the period when the couple was trying to figure out their post-show life together. He says this dramatically altered how he viewed his priorities.  
• The public reaction to the breakup, the scrutiny of reality-TV romance gone wrong, and the internal emotional fallout hit Gerry hard. He admits to having suicidal thoughts during the darkest phase after the split.  

Gerry’s central message: he wants people to understand that the narrative of his life isn’t just the rose ceremonies and the wedding special—there’s real grief, floundering hopes, and the struggle of putting oneself forward again into love and public scrutiny. He’s attempting to reclaim his story.