The Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner allegedly dated another contestant following the breakdown of his brief marriage to co-star Theresa Nist.
The 74-year-old retired restaurateur from Indiana fronted the inaugural season of ABC’s dating show spinoff, which aired in 2023. During the show, he dated 22 senior women before ultimately choosing to marry Nist. The pair tied the knot in a televised ceremony in January 2024 before announcing their divorce three months later.
In a new episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, Nist, 72, was speaking with Golden Bachelor alums Susan Noles and Kathy Swarts, who brought up that Turner had apparently dated fellow contestant Christina after his split with Nist.
“Theresa, I think you know, Gerry dated Christina from our show for a while after…” Swarts asked as Nist replied that “now” she knew.
“A while ago... I’m actually the one who suggested he go out with Christina,” Nist insisted, with Swarts adding: “We’re all on the same page. They went out for, like, six months.”
Nist appeared surprised by the supposed length of time of their relationship, saying: “I didn’t know that!”
“Oh yeah!” Swarts responded, claiming that Turner had let Christina read a part of his forthcoming memoir, Golden Years: What I've Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV, out November 4.
“And I said, he better have said nice things about all of us,” Swarts quipped.
Christina, who is a retired purchasing manager from Sierra Madre, California, was 73 when she appeared on season one of The Golden Bachelor. She was eliminated in the third week.
The Independent has contacted Turner’s representative for comment.
Since his divorce from Nist, Turner announced he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
“As Theresa and I were trying very hard to find our lifestyle and where we were going to live and how we were going to make our life work, I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer,” he told People in December 2024.
He said he found out about his condition after suffering a shoulder injury while playing pickleball three years ago. He said he went to an orthopedic surgeon, who then referred him to an oncologist, and is now working with a hematology-oncology group.
“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make,” Turner said.
This April, a year after his divorce from Nist, Turner revealed he is now dating a retired teacher named Lana. He told TMZ that he connected with Lana on Facebook since they had many mutual friends.
He had previously hinted at his new relationship on an earlier Bachelor Happy Hour podcast episode.
“I don’t wanna say too much and jinx it,” he explained without sharing his partner’s name at the time. “And I’m trying to respectfully get to a point where there’s an acceptable amount of time from my divorce. Maybe that’s old-fashioned, though, you know, maybe it doesn’t matter as much as I think it does. But to be respectful, I kind of want to slow roll this.”
