The Golden Bachelor couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist have confirmed why exactly they've decided to get a divorce only three months after tying the knot.
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Theresa and Gerry suggested in the clip that they were divorcing because neither one of them was willing to relocate and move away from their adult children and families.
And The Golden Bachelor newlyweds confirmed their reasoning for the split when the remainder of their interview aired on ABC Nightline on Friday night.
"The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, it's been how dedicated both of us are to our families and how dedicated Theresa is to being a full-time grandmother to three awesome boys," Gerry explained to ABC Nightline co-anchor Juju Chang.
"She lives five minutes from her daughter and in good conscience, I absolutely couldn't ask her to leave that."
Gerry continued, "On the other side of the coin, my dad is ageing. He lives about 45 minutes away, and I feel a strong need to be close to him. I also have granddaughters."
Gerry is still living at his lake house in Indiana, which is about 45 minutes away from his ageing father, Everett Turner, while Theresa currently resides in her native New Jersey, where she works a full-time job in financial services and has a home of her own.
The couple's bombshell divorce announcement came about two months after reports they were still living separately had surfaced.
Gerry said he and Theresa were "looking at these situations" and considering their options.
"I think we just feel like it's best, for the happiness of each of us, to live apart," Gerry said.
But Juju asked the couple why they're not willing to try a commuter marriage.
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"Maybe because we're older. We wanted it immediately, to be together, and so maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe when you're young, you've got the time to be in a commuter marriage," Theresa explained.
"We didn't see it as an option," Gerry added.
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Juju, however, seemed surprised Gerry and Theresa were willing to just "give up" on their marriage and not search for a way to make things work.
"I think maybe it's part of the fact that we are older," Theresa noted, "and we do have homes and we do have children and we do have grandchildren."
Theresa shared, "I'm not saying it's impossible that the love can't overcome that, but it did play a major role."
The pair were holding hands during their interview, and they insisted that they never fell out of love with each other.
"I still love this person. There is no doubt in my mind, I am still in love with her and I root for her every day," Gerry said.
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"I hear what you're saying... and yet throughout the process you said you were 100% committed to making it work," she said. "In November you told me you were thinking of moving to South Carolina to be together. How did it all fall apart?"
"Yeah, so that was the plan," Theresa replied.
"We looked at homes in South Carolina. We [also] considered New Jersey. We just looked at home after home but we never got to the point where we made that decision."
During the ABC interview, Theresa also insisted a November 2023 media report that Gerry misrepresented his past throughout The Golden Bachelor's production and broadcast run and allegedly had a live-in girlfriend of nearly three years before he appeared on the show played no role in her decision to divorce.
"No, not for me," Theresa said. "Because Gerry had already discussed that with me, he had already explained that to me before the report was ever released -- so we were good with that, that didn't play into it."
"No," Gerry shrugged.
The Golden Bachelor stars also admitted they each planned to continuing looking for love in new relationships.
"Oh yeah," Gerry told Juju.
"Yes," Theresa added. "And we tell everyone else to continue looking for love."
Gerry and Theresa fell in love on The Golden Bachelor and got engaged during the season finale, which aired right after Thanksgiving in November 2023 on ABC.
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After the couple got engaged on The Golden Bachelor, Gerry and Theresa had told multiple media outlets that they planned to have a fresh start by moving to South Carolina together.
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"And all of a sudden, it's like, there's a big problem that is gone. The issue of compromising on where to live and how to reconcile families and all of that is, it's no longer an issue."
Theresa had gushed at the time about how she wanted to build a big home with Gerry so their children and grandchildren could visit and have plenty of room to stay.
Afterward, Gerry drove 10 hours from Indiana with his dog to visit Theresa in New Jersey on January 9.
Gerry -- an Iowa native who has been living in Indiana since 2017 -- and Theresa tried new restaurants together, and they even recreated their first The Golden Bachelor date with a trip to a local diner.
Gerry and Theresa were asked if they were still planning to move to Charleston together during a January 16 appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, which is co-hosted by Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
Theresa shared at the time, "We're still going to look there, yeah, absolutely... We're going to consider New Jersey, but it's probably going to be outside of Charleston. So that's the plan!"
"The plan is that we're going to plan. We're going to sit down and plan, and all of a sudden, my wheels started spinning about our trip to Italy."
Theresa had said she and Gerry were thinking about going to Italy, a trip ABC had gifted them, in May or June of this year.
When the Los Angeles Times previously asked Gerry if he'd continue to seek stardom or just live a quiet life with Theresa post-show, Gerry had replied, "I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive."
"I can have a great, quiet life with Theresa and still look at the aspirations and ambitions that may be out there," he elaborated in December.
"But I will say this, I am absolutely going to savor every moment until I get to that altar and say my 'I do's.' I want every single moment to be as joyful for her as it is for me, and I never want to look back and feel I hurried through anything. We'll deal with the aspirations after that."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
