The Golden Bachelor alum Theresa Nist may not be on dating apps following her divorce from Gerry Turner, but she’s still receiving messages from men.
“I do get approached through Instagram direct messages, but you wouldn’t believe how young these guys are,” Nist, 71, told People in an interview published on Saturday, December 14. “They’re so young that they’re younger than my son!” (Nist shared son Tommy and daughter Jen with late husband William “Billy” Nist, who died in 2014.)
“But these young guys, I’m just baffled by it and they’ll persist and persist and persist,” Theresa continued. “And I’m talking 33-year-olds!”
Theresa admitted that she hasn’t gone on any dates following her divorce from Turner, 73. “I have been asked, and I’ve said no,” she said. “I don’t know. I’m more clear on what I want, so I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I definitely do want to be with someone. I do. I think life is so much better when you’re with someone, but I know that it’s even hard for young people to find people. Imagine how much harder it gets … I’m 71. That number scares people.”
While Theresa said she would prefer to “date someone younger,” she claimed to not want someone more than 10 years below her age.
“To me, age, it doesn’t matter up to a point,” she said. “[But] too young, we are just not culturally the same, we didn’t experience the same things growing up, the same music, the same movies. It’s hard to have a conversation. And I don’t think that anything is too old. It’s just your energy. It’s who you are basically.”
Theresa noted that she’s unsure whether she would want to exchange vows again, but has an idea of what characteristics she wants in her next partner.
“Like passion for something you love to do, something that makes you wake up and want to get out of bed in the morning,” she said. “It’s intelligence. It’s to be able to speak on the same level. And that’s really unique when you start talking to someone, whether or not you, you’re understanding each other at your core.”
Following the death of Billy, Theresa was cast on The Golden Bachelor season 1, where she vied for the affections of Turner. Theresa ultimately accepted a proposal from Turner during the finale episode, which aired in 2023. Theresa and Turned tied the knot during a live television special in January 2024.
Months later, however, the pair announced their plans to divorce. While Turner and Theresa have kept the reasons for their split private, the former Golden Bachelor recently revealed that he chose not to discuss details due to a health battle.
“I think it’s time, also because it probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April,” Turner told People on December 11. “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.”
Turner shared that he was diagnosed with a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer” called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. He noted that there is no cure.
As Turner tried to live his life “as normal as possible,” he admitted to the outlet that he spent more time with his family — and his relationship with Theresa fell to the side. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority,” he said.
“When you are hit with that kind of news and the shock wears off after a few days or a few weeks and you regroup and you realize what’s important to you, that’s where you start to move forward,” he said. “And I hope that people understand in retrospect now that that had a huge bearing on my decisions and I think probably Theresa’s as well.”
Theresa, however, rejected the idea that his diagnosis impacted their decision to divorce. In a separate interview with People on December 11, she claimed that his cancer “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.”
“If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know,” she said. “But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship. Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”
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