Originally appeared on E! Online
Every rose has its thorn — just ask Theresa Nist.
“The Golden Bachelor” alum sounded off on ex Gerry Turner’s book “The Golden Years,” in which he wrote about confiding to second runner-up Faith Martin days before his January 2024 wedding to Nist that he felt “trapped” in their relationship.
“You did me no favors by marrying a woman that you did not want to marry,” Nist rebutted on the Nov. 4 episode of the Dear Shandy podcast. “You should have called off the wedding. No matter that we were on TV, that didn’t matter. This was our lives.”
In fact, the 72-year-old said she would’ve “applauded” Turner if he had come clean about his lingering feelings for runner-up Leslie Fhima, saying, “I would have supported you. I would have been so happy.”
Instead, Nist accused her former husband, who she divorced in June 2024, of writing “a book that recounts stories about us where not one of the stories that I have read is the way it happened.”
READ Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner Reveals His Last Communication With Ex Theresa Nist
“He regretted it,” she said of Turner choosing her over Fhima on “The Golden Bachelor,” “and then he resented that he was married to me. So, he really tried to make it work and any little thing that I did that he thought wasn’t right, he lashed out at me.”
Though Nist doesn’t agree with Turner’s accounts of how their romance fizzled out, she does believe that they both rushed into marriage.
“I always said I like to live my life without regrets, but boy, I made some mistakes here,” Nist confessed. “I regret getting married so quickly. That shouldn’t have happened.”
In hindsight, Nist believes Fhima would’ve been the better choice for Turner, who is now engaged to retired teacher Lana Sutton after meeting through social media.
“I regret, in the Fantasy Suite, not bringing up: ‘Who should you really be with?'” she continued. “I didn’t do that. I regret not doing that.”
PHOTOSGerry Turner, Theresa Nist, Golden Bachelor
