Gerry is feeling merry — and married.
“The Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner, 72, and his fiancee, Theresa Nist, 70, tied the knot on “The Golden Wedding” special, which aired on Thursday on ABC.
Turner’s daughters Angie and Jenny, as well as Theresa’s daughter, Jen, all spoke during the ceremony.
“I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you’re sad, to laugh with you when you’re happy, and just stick with you throughout it all,” Nist said in her vows.
“But most of all, to have fun for the rest of the days that we have left on this earth — which could be another hour,” she joked.
Turner added, “I promise to make you feel comforted in difficult times, and abundantly joyful and great times. I promise in those dark Pillow Talk moments when silence deafens to share my innermost thoughts with you and to listen to yours tenderly and carefully because we have a trust that cannot be broken. I also promise to keep track of your reading glasses all the time, and apparently some of your shoes now,” he quipped.
“Bachelor” nation royalty, including upcoming lead Joey Graziadei, Charity Lawson, Trista and Ryan Sutter, as well as other fan-favorite “Golden Bachelor” contestants, were all in attendance.
Susan Noles, a “Golden” contestant and the couple’s close friend, officiated the nuptials.
The inaugural season of the “Bachelor” spin-off focusing on people in their “golden” years was a hit, with 6.1 million viewers tuning in to watch the finale – the biggest “Bachelor” viewership in three years.
Turner was married to his high school sweetheart, Toni, for 43 years. They had two daughters, Angie and Jenny, as well as two granddaughters, Charlee and Payton.
Toni fell ill and died in 2017, and it was Turner’s daughters who encouraged him to find love again on the show.
The retired restaurateur, father and grandfather, stays busy “hosting barbecues, playing pickleball, cheering on his favorite Chicago sports teams, four-wheeling and spending time with friends and family at restaurants and local haunts,” according to Variety.
Turner told “GMA” that he went on “The Golden Bachelor” looking for a partner who “was high energy, someone who’s fairly competitive, that they enjoy sports. Someone that maybe plays pickleball, someone that maybe plays golf.”
However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing – in November, as the season was airing, dark secrets emerged about his alleged “secret girlfriend.”
A woman who claims to have dated Turner accused him of dumping her because she gained weight, which contradicted the kind image of Turner that the show had painted.
The woman, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and wanted to be identified only as “Carolyn,” claims she moved into Turner’s lake house in July 2018 – not long after his wife died, which also contradicted the image of Turner as a lonely widower, since he claimed he didn’t date after his wife’s death.
The relationship ended ahead of his high school reunion in October 2019, she claimed.
“I’m not taking you to the reunion looking like that,” Carolyn claims Turner told her, gesturing to her body as she had gained 10 pounds due to stress.
When asked if this story was true, Turner told the New York Times, “I guess I haven’t really looked at it as how accurate it is…I’ve more looked at it in terms of timing, and how it really doesn’t fit with all of the positive things that are going on in my life right now.”
“I mean, I’m sitting across from Theresa right now, and I look at her, and she’s the love of my life. And I really don’t have time to think about some of the other stuff.”
When Turner was down to his final two choices, between Nist and Leslie Fhima, he told Nist: “I came to the realization that you’re not the right person for me to live with. You’re the person that I can’t live without.”
Shrewsbury native Nist, who started as just one of three women from New Jersey, revealed during the season’s first episode that she had very strong ties to her Monmouth County community.
According to the 70-year-old’s Instagram, Nist frequently travels to South Carolina to visit her son and grandchildren.
Fhima didn’t take the rejection so well.
On the episode, after Turner broke the news that Nist was his choice, Fhima called him a liar.
“So everything you told me…was a lie,” she said to him.
“You said things to me that made me think that this was going to be it. You led me down a path, and then you took a turn and left me there, and that’s how I feel. It’s mind-boggling, to be honest, how you can talk to me all night, tell me you love me, and then one day — not even a day, 12 hours later — you changed your mind.”
“In the beginning, shortly after the season ended and everything was put to bed, I felt like I had a few regrets,” Turner told The Post about his experience on the show.
“But now that there’s been a little time for me to sort through the facts and my feelings and so forth, quite honestly, I don’t think I would go back and change a thing… I wanted someone who had a really good sense of humor, someone who pretty much emoted kindness and thoughtfulness and a genuine feeling of wanting to be a partner.”
ABC has not yet announced if “The Golden Bachelor” is renewed for a Season 2.
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