When The Golden Bachelorette's first season arrived on the 2024 TV schedule, it was difficult for Golden Bachelor fans like myself to not feel rather burned after Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist got married on a live wedding special in January before turning around and announcing their divorce less than four months later. Now, Nist is explaining the key reason why things didn't work out between them and it highlights (yet again) a big issue I think Bachelor Nation needs to address: location, location, location!
Why does the ABC show keep assuming people won't have problems traversing the U.S. after pairing up? It's clearly broken up couples a few times over. And, when Nist spoke openly about what happened between herself and Gerry Turner while on the The Ben And Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast, she shared how she thinks it's "very difficult ask" for anyone, especially seniors, to move geographic locations when they have kids and grandkids, and it totally echoes what I've been thinking to myself about the series. Here's what she said:
The plan was to move to the area of Charleston, South Carolina. We were looking at homes virtually. I wasn't ready. I was still working full time, I have a home, I wasn't ready to sell my home until we found a home and we never got to a point where we found a home, and by the time we didn't find a home, Gerry came up with the idea of doing six weeks there and six weeks here, and I truly wanted to have our home together.
While Nist shared it was "not just the location thing" for the couple, clearly the pair never agreed on how to navigate their living situation as a married couple and yes, it ultimately factored into their breakup. Gerry Turner has lived in his "dream home" in Big Long Lake, Indiana, which he bought with his late wife and high school sweetheart shortly before she became ill and died just a month after the couple had closed on their new home. Plus, Turner has two daughters and two granddaughters.
Theresa Nist on the other hand has lived in Shrewbury, New Jersey in the years after having two kids and six grandkids. Their choice to move to North Carolina would have brought her closer to her son and allowed them to build a new place that would just theirs, but it was not to be. But one has to wonder how Gerry could have found a happy ending if more of the bachelorettes chosen for him were local to Indiana. As she continued:
I was willing to move. I wanted to have our big home where our family could come visit us. I didn't want to go back and forth. I wanted to have an established base with Gerry and then go visit our children... That was my idea because that's what we had agreed upon. And then I guess, he loves his house and I don't blame him. He loves where he lives and if that's what he decided to do, then do it and I want him to be happy.
While speaking on the podcast, hosted by The Bachelor Season 20's Ben Higgins and Bachelor In Paradise''s Ashley Iaconetti, Theresa also said that "you really cannot know somebody in four weeks," confirming a previously rumored anecdote about how a one-off comment about building townhouses on what turned out to be farmland sparked a series of difficult conversations.
Since their split, Theresa and Gerry have since finalized their divorce. Theresa has previously shared that she continues to root for him and be "in his corner" despite the high-profile breakup. She also said this:
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.
To me, the new details only further prove that The Bachelor seasons should be casting regionally to their star of the season rather than nationwide. Sure, love can conquer all in instances, but ultimately asking people, especially seniors, to uproot their entire lives and spend less time with their family, friends and in their established lives it basically setting up couples for failure. It sounds like Gerry and Theresa ultimately weren't comfortable with selling each of their homes and starting fresh together, and I don't blame them!
As The Golden Bachelorette's finale inches closer, I'm curious if Joan Vassos will be able to make things work with whomever she chooses. A new episode of the series airs tonight on ABC!