Exclusive Interview
Will ‘Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner & Theresa Nist Ever Be Friends Again? His Response (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Gerry Turner spoke with Swooon about his memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV.
- Gerry opened up about his split from Golden Bachelor winner Theresa Nist and where they stand today.
- The Season 1 lead dished details about his new fiancée, Lana Sutton.
Gerry Turner made history as Bachelor Nation’s first-ever Golden Bachelor lead. The Indiana-based widower searched for a second great love after the tragic death of his wife of 40-plus years, Toni.
At the end of his Golden Bachelor journey, Gerry proposed to Theresa Nist, and they married in a live TV wedding in January 2024. Just a couple of months later, Gerry and Theresa shocked the world by announcing their divorce. Since then, Gerry and Theresa have traded differing opinions on what caused their split. Gerry spoke with Swooon about his new memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV, where he stands with Theresa today, his new love, and more.
The 74-year-old fully admitted that he doesn’t remember the last time he spoke with his ex-wife. “It’s been quite some time,” he said. “Two adults of our age, we don’t have common children, we didn’t have assets together, we really had nothing to bind us together. And we’d agreed that it’s best for us to go our separate ways, so we didn’t really have reason to come back together for conversation.”
When Swooon asked Gerry if he thinks he and Theresa could ever get to a solid place again and become friends, he responded, “Oh, sure. I don’t know why not. We shared an experience that was quite unique, and I would say, yeah, that should be a possibility.”
Ahead of Gerry’s memoir release, Theresa was asked about the contents of the book. Theresa said on the She’s All Bach podcast that she was “disappointed” in what Gerry had to say about her. “I really thought he loved me, but clearly he had me fooled,” she noted.
Gerry’s reaction to her comments? “One of the things that I find most bothersome is a half truth that’s cloaked in this nobility when it’s very destructive. Half truths can be really quite a problem in conversation or in life. And really, if I think back, that’s a lot about why I wanted to put some facts on pages and put it in a book. I wanted the whole truth.”
Despite all that’s happened, Gerry said he has “no regrets” about doing the show — and he’d do it all over again. “It’s just what makes us who we are,” he explained. “Quite honestly, my thought right now goes to Lana [Sutton]. And it’s like, OK, all of those things were necessary for me to experience to get to where I was the day I met her.”
He added, “Anything along the way that changed might not have gotten me right to that point.”
Gerry and Lana started dating earlier this year, and the reality star popped the question in October 2025. “We haven’t stopped smiling. We haven’t stopped having fun,” he gushed.
Watch the full video interview above to see Gerry open up about other major moments in his memoir, his thoughts on The Golden Bachelor Season 2, and more.
Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV is available now.
