NEED TO KNOW
- Gerry Turner is getting candid about his relationship with ex Theresa Nist in his memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV
- In the book, the former Golden Bachelor star wrote that he “met a Theresa that I had not seen before” in their season 1 fantasy suite
- “I totally fell for her, and, at the end of this conversation, many hours into the night, I told her I loved her,” he wrote of his now-ex
Gerry Turner is reflecting on his relationship with Theresa Nist by looking back at a moment where the sparks were flying.
In his newly released memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned From Love, Loss, and Reality TV, the Golden Bachelor alum revealed that when it was time for him and Nist to experience their season 1 fantasy suite in Costa Rica, he was introduced to “a Theresa that I had not met before.”
“Theresa reinforced her willingness to change her life for love,” Turner, 74, wrote. “I learned about her high-profile job, that she is very good at it, and that she loves it. I learned she is financially secure and tired of being alone. She was considering moving to South Carolina, a place I had also considered making my next home. Surprisingly, I learned that she was pissed about the horseback ride date and ‘sick and tired’ of being classified as ‘not willing to be adventurous.'”
He added, “In the first two hours of our overnight I met a Theresa that I had not seen before. In the fantasy suite, she showed me a side that was not for the rest of the world but for me alone.”
As Turner explained in his memoir, Nist, 72, was “strong and happy and animated” when they connected in the fantasy suite, a date that came eight episodes into the season as Turner was ultimately tasked with deciding between Nist and fellow contestant Leslie Fhima.
“I totally fell for her, and, at the end of this conversation, many hours into the night, I told her I loved her,” he wrote of Nist.
“So many people have asked me when I knew Theresa was the right woman for me. I’m not sure I ever ‘knew,’ and I say it would be more accurate to ask when I felt she was the one. But was it when she put a calming hand on my shoulder that night of the Corvette ride on the I-405? Or was it when I realized how similar our long marriages had been? No, it wasn’t either of those,” he continued. “Ultimately, the moment I felt I had the right woman came in the fantasy suite.”
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Turner and Nist began their romance in August 2023 when they met on the show and ended things in April 2024 when they filed for divorce. The pair revealed their decision to split during an interview on Good Morning America on April 12, 2024.
Speaking with the Dear Shandy podcast on Nov. 4, Nist addressed allegations her ex made about her in the book and claimed “not one of the stories that I have read is the way it happened.”
“You did me no favors by marrying a woman that you did not want to marry,” she said of Turner. “You should not. You should have called off the wedding. No matter that we were on TV, that didn’t matter. This was our lives. You should have stopped it.”
In the year since their split, Turner has gotten engaged to his new partner, Lana Sutton. The pair started dating in the spring.
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