Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist Fought About Her Job Before Split
The Golden Bachelor‘s Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist fought about her job and her desire to keep working prior to the estranged couple’s divorce announcement.
“I still work, so that’s the hurdle,” Theresa, 70, revealed as one of their relationship issues during a March appearance on the “Dear Shandy” podcast alongside her then-husband.
The New Jersey resident works as a compliance officer and was grateful to get as much time off as she did to appear on The Golden Bachelor. Thus, she wasn’t ready to leave them in a lurch by quitting after the couple married on January 4 in a televised ceremony on ABC.
Theresa told her bosses she was only going to be away for two weeks when she went on the show. “I honestly thought, ‘Oh, let me just get through the first night,’” she said. “And I stayed and I stayed and I stayed, and my employer was so good to me. And before I left, I kind of said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you.’”
After their wedding, Theresa wasn’t ready to quit her job and leave New Jersey until she and Gerry, 72, decided on where they would settle down together as husband and wife.
“Until we decide on a place to really live, then I can really make a big decision to say, ‘OK, we’re going to live in this place or that place,” she said at the time. “And originally, it was South Carolina. We’re still not sure if that’s what it is.”
Gerry appeared on the podcast with his bride and said her working was putting a cramp in the plans the retiree had for their future.
“I guess the difficult part is I went on to the show to find my partner, and I’ve been retired for a long time. I wanted fun [and] adventure. I wanted to go do [things],” the former restaurateur explained.
“So that is the crux of it, right now, is when does that start? I think the living arrangement is really secondary to the freedom of being able to go and enjoy life and do,” he continued, seemingly hinting that her work was holding them back from being able to live the life he wanted.
Gerry referred to Theresa’s work as a “hurdle” that was “still there.” He added, “And right now, we’re dealing with it. It’s just something we’re gonna have to find a way around.”
Ultimately there was no way around it, as Gerry wanted to remain living life as a retiree at his Indiana lake house while Theresa continued to work and live in New Jersey. ABC’s first Golden Bachelor said their living situation proved to be something they couldn’t agree on.
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations and we’ve looked closely at our situation — our living situation — and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s time for us to dissolve our marriage,” Gerry told Good Morning America host Juju Chang in a joint interview with Theresa on April 12.
Later that day he filed for divorce in Petersburg, Indiana, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of their three-month marriage.