'Golden Bachelor' Divorce Was the Fastest in Franchise History
by EG
Bachelor Nation was already facing the possibility that it had been duped when implications surfaced that The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner was maybe not who the franchise said he was. Now there's the possibility that his new TV wife found out the same thing, as she and Turner announced this week that they are divorcing just a matter of weeks after they got married on the show. In a franchise not exactly known for producing long-lived relationships, this one sets a new record for shortness. Read on for details.
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 porce 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.
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.
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.”
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.