The Golden Bachelor couple Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist have revealed why they had decided to get married so quickly after their engagement aired on ABC.
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Gerry and Theresa then tied the knot in Palm Springs, CA, for The Golden Wedding special, which aired January 4 on ABC.
Considering the pair had very little time to plan their wedding and even enjoy their engagement, Bachelor in Paradise spouses Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt asked Gerry and Theresa why they rushed their wedding during the January 16 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
"So there's a number of factors, I guess. But the first one is when you look at someone and you know it's right and you're 72, you realize that, you know, waiting a month or a couple of months could possibly be a large percentage the remaining days you have on Earth," Gerry explained.
Gerry laughed at his bleak outlook on the future and then added, "You want to get to it, if it's right!"
Theresa also has experience with a quick-turnaround wedding given she had planned a wedding in just two days for her first marriage to Billy, who passed away in 2014 from kidney failure after 42 years of marriage.
"It's true. It was my mom who did it, and I don't even know how she got the photographer and flowers and a cake and a church! We got married in a church, but our reception was in our basement," Theresa shared.
"I don't know how she did that! But yeah!"
Serena therefore joked about how a month probably felt like a lifetime to her, and Theresa agreed time was a luxury for her second wedding.
Gerry also gushed on the podcast about how he was "1,000 percent convinced" in Costa Rica -- in the final days of filming The Golden Bachelor -- that Theresa is the right woman for him.
"That's when I felt like I had the final sentence of the final chapter written," Gerry noted.
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Following the wedding, Gerry packed his suitcase, grabbed his beloved goldendoodle, and traveled to Theresa's home state of New Jersey on January 9.
After a 10-hour drive, Gerry -- an Iowa native who has been living on a lake in Indiana since 2017 -- and his beloved dog, Cody, arrived at Theresa's home in Shrewsbury, NJ, where The Golden Bachelor star was greeted with a home-cooked meal.
The couple has since been trying new restaurants, and they even recreated their first The Golden Bachelor date with a trip to a diner.
Gerry and Theresa's entire post-show relationship has been in the public eye, and so Gerry recently shared if he's already grown tired of the fame and constant scrutiny.
"Do [I] get tired of it? I don't because people get to share in the joy of the story and the joy of the show," Gerry said during a joint interview with Theresa on the January 2 episode of the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast.
"Just walking into our [New York City hotel for New Year's] last night, Theresa walked in the door and I was waiting for her. There were four young ladies there waiting to take our picture together. So it's constant."
Theresa added how "the best part is meeting so many people" and getting "to talk to strangers all the time," which she thinks is "so cool."
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Theresa shared how she enjoys reading messages on social media that she has inspired others to find love at any age.
"It's just hard to respond to every single person. We wish we could and we want to," Theresa said.
Gerry said he's "not sure there are words to describe" his overall experience on The Golden Bachelor.
"I asked Theresa, 'Did you have even an inkling about how big this would be?' Because our families have joined together," Gerry explained.
"It's not just that we have impacted and changed each other, but we've changed our families and we've changed people who have watched the show."
Gerry said he senses how The Golden Bachelor has given people a newfound sense of hope about finding love, even in one's senior years.
"And I hope they find humor in some of the things we do. So there are so many ripple-effect changes. They're all positive in my opinion, that this has caused."
"I looked forward to an amazing experience and to meet other women -- and hoping that it would happen -- but how in the world did this happen?! This is amazing!"
Before viewers even saw Gerry's happily-ever-after ending play out on TV, The Golden Bachelor became a cultural phenomenon and Gerry turned into an overnight celebrity.
But when the Los Angeles Times asked Gerry in December if he'll continue to seek stardom or just live a quiet life with Theresa now that the show is over, Gerry 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.
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Gerry gushed about how he had been feeling pure "joy" since The Golden Bachelor finale.
Gerry concluded that he and Theresa "just make a perfect pair" and they're "better as a couple than [they] are individually."
Gerry selected Theresa as his The Golden Bachelor winner over his runner-up Leslie Fhima, who was absolutely devastated by her breakup with Gerry and felt a little "uncomfortable" during Gerry and Theresa's wedding ceremony.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
