Former Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner has had quite a ride since wrapping up the show’s inaugural season in 2023. In the two years since it aired, he’s married his winner, Theresa Nist, on live TV, divorced her three months later, navigated a cancer diagnosis, met someone new, and gotten engaged yet again. Now, he’s writing a memoir, called The Golden Years, which comes out next month.
Turner spoke to Us Weekly about the book, and well…it certainly sounds like a messy read. In the interview, which came out Monday, Turner was asked if he’s worried about Nist reading the book. “I’m not worried; I think she should be worried,” he replied. Well!
Turner didn’t exactly explain what it is he thinks Nist should be so worried about, but hinted that he no longer thinks she was on the show “for the right reasons” – one of the biggest crimes a Bachelor contestant can be accused of. During the show, Turner said he “gave Theresa full credit that she was” there for the “right reasons.” “And then, as time went by, I kind of had to change my mind on that,” he said.
Sounds ominous – and probably a great endorsement for not marrying someone you’ve basically just met in a live television special. Speaking of that choice, it sounds like Turner had some major doubts going into it, noting that they “didn’t have much time together between the show [ending] and the wedding.” “I think that’s very unfortunate — certainly unintended by ABC, circumstances got in the way — but I should have been that guy that stomped his feet and yelled and said, ‘This has got to happen. We have to get to know each other,’” Turner said. He also said he felt “empty” on the day he proposed to Nist, which came the day after he broke up with his runner-up, Leslie Fhima, and said he felt “trapped” before the wedding.
It sounds like Nist wasn’t too thrilled to hear all that – in a statement to Us, she said it made her “very sad to think that he felt empty and trapped.” “I wish he had said something and just ended it. But at least now I understand why he was so hurtful to me so many times,” she said. “And I will say this. Those in glass houses should not throw stones. I do wish him all the best.” Oof. Sounds like the makings of another juicy memoir, if you ask me.
