The Rise and Fall of Gerry Turner’s Stint as ABC’s First ‘Golden Bachelor’

The first-ever Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner and his wife Theresa Nist announced on Good Morning America that they have mutually decided to “dissolve our marriage.” This many years into the storied ABC franchise, not much will surprise Bachelor Nation (the term for the reality dating show’s devoted audience). But news of a Golden Bachelor divorce coming only three months after their televised Jan. 4 Golden Wedding gave the beloved senior couple a new “history-making” title: the fastest-ever Bachelor franchise divorce.

Their union lasted only 100 days, the shortest-ever marriage across more than 20 years of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and its many spinoffs, including Bachelor in Paradise. So, what led to the septuagenarians who reinvigorated both franchise ratings and overall sentiment around the dating franchise calling it off?

During their GMA sit-down, anchor Juju Chang asked if reports about Turner’s past led to their split. (On the day before the Nov. 30 finale, The Hollywood Reporter‘s exposé on Turner revealed he hadn’t been truthful about his romantic or professional past.) “No, not for me,” said Nist. “Gerry had already discussed that with me, he explained that to me before the report was ever released so we were good with that.”

Below, THR takes a look back at how Turner’s senior spinoff bloomed to become the franchise golden child — only to wilt in the end.

Golden Bachelor Had Been in the Works for Years

In February 2020, it was first announced during a The Bachelor commercial break that the franchise was casting “seniors looking for love.”

At the time, the title hadn’t been set, but an ABC casting page offered further details: “Are you entering your golden years and looking for romance? The Producers of The Bachelor are looking for active and outgoing single men and women in their golden years for a new exciting dating show.”

Over three years later in May 2023, The Golden Bachelor was officially greenlit by the network. Shortly afterwards, then-71-year-old Indiana native Turner was revealed as the first-ever Golden Bachelor.

The Show Finally Became a Reality Because They Found the Seemingly Perfect Lead

When speaking with THR back in November 2023, the Golden Bachelor executive producers revealed that the senior spinoff had actually been talked about for nearly a decade, but began casting in 2019, and eventually returned to the process in 2022 following a pandemic pause. “Once we saw that tape with Gerry, it was really hard to beat him,” said Jason Elrich about Turner, who submitted himself for the show, with his daughters’ support, years after the death of his first wife. “Gerry is amazing. He’s an unbelievable find. But it was the marriage of Gerry and these incredible women who we saw in casting that really gave life to the show.”

Claire Freeland added that Turner fit all the categories they were looking for: “It’s very easy to say yes to Gerry. He’s so deserving, too. He’s like America’s dad.”

The Show Is a Hit Out of the Gate, Reinvigorating the Franchise

When the Bachelor offshoot premiered on Sept. 28, it hit 7.7 million viewers amid the first three days of cross-platforming viewing, reaching 9 million views a week after it aired.

The series kept drawing in audiences eager to see Turner find love again, with the season finale reaching 6.95 million linear viewers. It was the biggest viewership the franchise had seen since March 2020, during the finale of Peter Weber’s stint on The Bachelor.

The Senior Show Reclaimed the Franchise’s Once-Wholesome Image by Inspiring Love at Any Age

Unlike drama-filled recent seasons of The Bachelor, The Golden Bachelor made viewers believe that its contestants were genuinely searching for a new chance at romance, as 25 senior women — many whom, like Turner, were widows themselves — competed for a chance to win his heart.

During a Golden Bachelor preview shown during season 20 of The Bachelorette Charity Lawson’s Men Tell All reunion special, Turner talked about how much it meant to have the opportunity to find love again and how different it feels in his 70s versus meeting his first wife, Toni, in high school.

“What I look for at the age of 70 is different from what I looked for in high school and college,” he explained. “So, I believe I’ll find my person — the new person that will make me whole again. And I think we’ll knit a wonderful relationship. But I don’t think it’ll look like the relationship I had with Toni. And I don’t think it would be right to do it that way.”

THR Publishes a Report Questioning Gerry Turner’s Past

In THR‘s report from Nov. 29 ahead of the Golden Bachelor season finale, a woman who claimed to have dated Turner said the persona he projected on TV of a grieving bachelor who was ready for his second chance at love was false. Instead, she claimed that he has had various romantic entanglements that date back to weeks after his wife’s death, and wasn’t the kindhearted partner he presented himself as on the ABC show.

The report also found that Turner wasn’t a “retired restaurateur” as he claimed to be. Instead, he had last owned a restaurant in 1985, selling his Iowa-based Mr. Quick fast food franchise. He then held various sales and management positions in the meat business and worked numerous other jobs, such as installing hot tubs at Gannon Pools and working as a maintenance man at the Vera French Mental Health Center.

Gerry and Theresa Get Engaged and Confirm Plans to Rush a TV Wedding Because They Are So in Love

After their engagement in Costa Rica, Turner and Nist announced their nuptial plans, set to take place merely weeks after Turner’s pick was shown onscreen. After host Jesse Palmer told the couple during the finale that the show was sending them on a trip to Italy to celebrate their engagement, Turner said, “We can use that as our honeymoon trip because we are going to get married. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can because, at our age, we don’t have a lot of time to waste. As quickly as we can put together a wedding plan, we’re getting married.”

In Post-Finale Press, Gerry Turner Brushes Off THR‘s Report

“I guess I would say this: I dated a number of women, but then it becomes an issue of how you define whether you’re in a relationship. [The relationship referenced in THR] really didn’t [last a few years],” Turner told Katie Couric Media while doing post-finale press.

Speaking about his professional life, he said, “The business I owned was very much like the Cadillac Diner that Theresa and I went to on the very first date. I sold burgers and fries and shakes, and it was a very profitable business. And the comments about what I did later in life, I did those after I retired. I retired at 55, and I was very happy giving back to the community and doing things that were worth something to other people.”

Turner continued, “I mean, jeez, I didn’t work as a handyman for the money. I did it because I knew I was doing something good for people who needed help. There’s just enough truth in [the article]. But I have so many positives to think about that I haven’t really given that article a whole lot of thought.”

The Ratings Are In — and They Are Big

The Golden Bachelor saw the best ratings for any show in the franchise since the March 15, 2021, finale of Matt James’ season of The Bachelor, drawing 6.07 million viewers according to ratings from Nielsen.

The Show’s Success Greenlights the Golden Bachelorette Spinoff

Back in November, executive producer Ehrlich teased the possibility of a Golden Bachelorette spinoff, noting that the producers were “really hopeful that this [series] continues to expand.” Putting together The Golden Bachelorette “will be almost like doing it for the first time all over again,” Ehrlich told THR. “What is it going to be like with 20-some older men living in the Bachelor Mansion? We don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it will be different and interesting. And that’s what makes me want to watch.”

In February, ABC officially confirmed that The Golden Bachelorette is in the works. However, the starring pick hasn’t been announced yet.

Golden Bachelor Is a Franchise Success Story

During a panel with unscripted showrunners at this year’s Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, Freeland mentioned The Golden Bachelor as a positive example of where the franchise is heading when asked about the franchise’s diversity woes. “I think you’re seeing much more representation. And that’s really the goal going forward,” she said. “I can only speak to what I’ve done here over the last year. I hope that shows what our plan is for the franchise and what we’ll do as we go forward.”

Gerry Turner Gets an Agent

In January, Turner signed with Gersh for representation.

The First-Ever Golden Wedding Comes One Month After Finale

On Jan. 4, Turner and Nist made history as the first Golden Bachelor couple to get married. Their nuptials were televised live on ABC.

“I’ve learned you are the woman I can’t live without,” Turner said during his vows. “I promise that if you’re my partner in life, I will make you the happiest woman on Earth.”

“I love your heart and your soul. I love your smiles and your laughter,” vowed Nist. “I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you’re sad, to laugh with you when you’re happy and to stick with you throughout it all. But most of all, to have fun for the rest of the days that we have left on this Earth.”

Three Months Later, They Announce Their Divorce

Turner and Nist were together in the live audience during Joey Graziadei’s The Bachelor season finale, which aired on March 25. They also taped an episode of Celebrity Family Feud with some of their Golden Bachelor co-stars and family members only one week before they would go on to publicly announce their divorce. Turner shared pics behind the scenes of his “blended family.” (ABC has yet to announce an air date).

“The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations is how dedicated both of us are to our families,” Turner would then go on to explain to Chang on GMA on April 13, announcing the split. “So we look at these situations and I think we just feel like it’s best, for the happiness of each of us, to live apart.”

When Chang pointed out that the couple had previously talked about finding a home together in South Carolina, Nist divulged why those plans fell apart. “We looked at homes in South Carolina. We considered New Jersey. We just looked at home after home but we never got to the point where we made that decision,” she said.

The couple clarified that though their marriage hasn’t worked out, they’re still very much enamored with each other. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I still am in love with her, I root for her every day,” said Turner, who kissed her hand. The takeaway from ABC News interviewer Juju Chang — who noted that the couple did have a prenuptial agreement in place — after the sit-down was, “It’s a head-scratcher.”

Turner filed for divorce the morning of the GMA interview in his hometown of Petersburg, Indiana, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage, per the filing obtained by THR. Nist will have to return to ring, which was a gift by the show.

In an Instagram post after their interview aired, Nist wrote, in part, “For everyone else who is confused and angry and who does not understand, please try to find it in your heart to understand and to try a little kindness. Not just for me but for the world and for everyone you encounter.”

She continued, “It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, something I never expected to happen at this point in my life and I truly thought it was going to last forever. It turns out, even at the age of 70, you don’t know everything.

“Sometimes things don’t go the way you planned and that’s okay. I take so many positives away from this experience, most importantly and above all the incredible friends I now have in all of these amazing, wonderful women and in Angie and Jenny, Payton and Charlee, the producers, the production crew and so many of you. I ask you to please stay open to all the experiences, opportunities, and love that may come your way. Keep smiling, keep laughing … I will. I love you all.”

More of their sit-down interview with Chang then aired later that night on ABC News’ Nightline, where Turner and Nist, who resides in New Jersey, made it clearer that long-distance and dedication to their families was their hurdle. As a full-time grandmother to three boys, Nist “lives five minutes from her daughter. In good conscience, I actually couldn’t ask her to leave that,” said Turner. “On the other side of the coin, my dad is aging. He lives about 45 minutes away and I feel a strong need to be close to him. I also have granddaughters.”

Nist added, “We do have homes. And we do have children, and we do have grandchildren. And I’m not saying it’s impossible that the love can’t overcome that, but it did play a major role.” Because of their age, she says they didn’t consider a commuter marriage and Turner agreed. “We didn’t see it as an option,” he said of a long-distance marriage.

They said they began conversations about splitting up three weeks prior to the announcement, and that they sought out couples’ counseling. “It was like the lightbulb went on that we were of the same mind, and we started talking about whether it was the right thing to do to divorce or stay together,” said Turner.

Nist’s advice to the next Golden Bachelorette? “Have the deep conversations. Don’t do the surface-level conversations.” He added, “Slow things down. Pull in every bit of information possible, ask hard questions. Get to know someone well. But, go slow.”

Jackie Strause contributed to this story.