Golden Bachelor’s Theresa Fires Back at Gerry Turner's Book Claim by Claim

Theresa Nist is ready to share her side of the story on the heels of ex-husband Gerry Turner’s tell-all memoir.

“I am normally such a calm person. And all I want is peace and joy and good things in my life,” Theresa, 72, said on the Tuesday, November 4, episode of the “Dear Shandy” podcast. “I have been so upset. I have been extremely upset. Anytime I talk about anything that I read that he said about any interaction we had, I just go, ‘That’s not how it was.’”

Bachelor Nation met Theresa when she vied for the affections of Gerry on The Golden Bachelor season 1, which premiered in 2023. Months after the pair got engaged in the season finale, Theresa and Gerry tied the knot in a televised wedding ceremony. Three months later, however, the twosome announced their divorce in April 2024.

While they initially claimed the split was mutual, they began a he-said, she-said in the media that has come to a head with Gerry’s new memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV. Ahead of the book’s release, Gerry exclusively told Us Weekly in a digital cover story that he thought Theresa “should be worried” about the contents.

“That felt threatening to me. Why would he say something like that?” Theresa said in response to Gerry’s comments on Tuesday. “For him to say that, I have to say, was he not there? Does he not know the things that he did and that I would have so many things to say?”

Scroll down for the biggest takeaways from Theresa’s podcast about her relationship with Gerry:

Feeling ‘Distance’ on the Show

In Theresa’s perspective, there was “distance” between her and Gerry that began on her overnight date. It wasn’t until the pair were in the fantasy suite — and she began talking about her job — that she felt the dynamic “changed completely.”

“He started proclaiming his love for me. [He said], ‘I love you. I love you. I love you. And I’m going to ask you to marry me and whether or not you say yes, that’s up to you.’ I was shocked,” Theresa recalled, noting that she thought Gerry had a stronger connection with runner-up Leslie Fhima.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Theresa denied Gerry’s allegations that she was reading a book to strategize winning the show while in the mansion — claiming she actually listened to the first chapter of How to Win the Bachelor when she had a free trial of Audible.

“Before I went on the show, I got a free trial to Audible and one of the books on there was ‘How to Win The Bachelor.’ I go, ‘Whoa, somebody wrote a book on how to win the Bachelor,’” Theresa explained. “So, I started listening to it but I only got through the first chapter before my free trial ran out. I didn’t even think about it when I went to the show. It had no bearing whatsoever on me going to the show.”

Alleged Temper Before the Wedding

After ending the show engaged to Gerry, Theresa claimed that there was one instance that alarmed her because of his alleged “display of temper” that she “couldn’t believe.” Theresa explained that she tends to stay up around midnight, whereas Gerry prefers an earlier bedtime — and things were tense when the pair once tried to go to bed at 7:30.

“I was up for like an hour and I was just about to go to sleep and all of a sudden he comes storming out of the bedroom calling me a liar,” Theresa noted, claiming that Gerry said the comments in “such a bad temper.”

Wedding Regrets

While Gerry claimed he felt “trapped” the night before his wedding to Theresa, she alleged that the pair never had a conversion about his feelings — and would have been “relieved” if he shared that with her. Looking back, Theresa admitted that she felt the twosome got married too fast.

“I have to say that I always said I like to live my life without regrets, but boy I made some mistakes here. I regret getting married so quickly. That shouldn’t have happened,” Theresa shared.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Theresa shared that Gerry did her “no favors” by going through with the wedding. “You should have called off the wedding,” Theresa said in a message to Gerry.

Finances and Prenups

Theresa admitted that Gerry had “more money” than she did, noting that the twosome discussed finances in the fantasy suite. Theresa explained that Gerry was “so concerned” about a prenup, because he wanted his money to go to his two daughters — something she claimed to be on the same page about.

“Gerry wanted the prenup and I told him, ‘No, I would never in a million years take your money.’ So he dropped it,” Theresa explained. Gerry, however, changed his mind and ultimately asked Theresa to sign the prenup. In the book, he alleged that Teresa was hesitant to sign the document, but she told a different story about being confused by which documents to return to him.

Househunting and Intimacy Troubles

While looking for their forever home in Charleston, South Carolina, Theresa denied Gerry’s claims that she was insistent on going outside of their budget, but did admit that she struggled to love any of the homes he had them tour.

When visiting Theresa at her home in New Jersey, Gerry alleged that she “rebuffed” his attempts at physical intimacy and that she made him sleep on the sofa. Theresa, however, painted a different picture.

“I haven’t slept with anyone in nine years. … I didn’t sleep the entire night and I’m not a great sleeper. The next morning it came up, ‘How did you sleep?’ I said, ‘I didn’t sleep at all.’ We slept together the first night. He said, ‘Oh, I can sleep on the couch if you want me to.’ He offered to sleep on the couch. I did not ask him to sleep on the couch,” Theresa claimed.

As for their physical intimacy, Theresa claimed she never felt “desired” by Gerry.

Navigating Turner’s Cancer

Theresa shared on the podcast that her late husband suffered from a stroke before his death, leaving half of his body paralyzed. She brought this up as a way to say that she would have been by Gerry’s side as he navigated his cancer diagnosis. (Gerry shared in 2024 that he was diagnosed with a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer.”)

“For him to say something, that anybody thinks that I wouldn’t care for my husband who got sick, that’s not me,” Theresa said.

Where Nist Stands Now

Now that she and Gerry have divorced, Theresa admitted that she wants to be by herself — but is still looking for love.

“I really do want to get married. I do want love in my life. That’s what I wanted. That was the whole point of this,” she said.

Theresa ultimately got emotional sharing that viewers never got to see the real her during her time on The Golden Bachelor, tearfully sharing, “That’s the tragedy of the whole thing.”

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