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It’s a must in every wedding talk now. For those who followed their journey on The Golden Bachelor, might be wondering if Gerry and Theresa signed a prenup.
The Golden Bachelor is a spin-off of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette featuring single men and women aged 65 and older. “Some of the casting interviews we got, they were just so touching,” ABC unscripted executive Rob Mill told Variety in 2020 about why the network wanted to create The Golden Bachelor. “It’s such a different way of doing The Bachelor because these people are just at a totally different place in their lives. There is an interesting thing about people who have hit the other end of the spectrum, who’ve lived their lives, they’ve raised their kids, some have been widowed or divorced and maybe some have never been in love. We thought that would be an interesting dynamic through the Bachelor prism.”
The star for the inaugural season was 72-year-old restaurant owner Gerry Turner “It’s never too late to fall in love again,” he said. Gerry is a father, grandfather, and widower. He married his wife and high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1974. They share two daughters, Angie and Jenny, and two granddaughters, Charlee and Payton. Gerry and Toni were married for 43 years until her death from an illness in 2017, six weeks after her retirement. “She got robbed,” Gerry told Good Morning America about Toni. “Every day that goes by, that’s the thought I have.”
Gerry gave his final rose and proposed to Theresa, a 70-year-old financial services professional, at the Final Rose Ceremony after rejecting his runner-up, Leslie Fhima, a 64-year-old Fitness Instructor from Minneapolis, Minnesota. His third place finalist, Faith Martin, a 60-year-old High School Teacher from Benton City, Washington, was eliminated after Hometown Dates.
“Part of our conversation in the Fantasy Suites [was] the first time really that I seriously told her that I loved her,” Gerry said. “It was almost an announcement of excitement. I said it three times in a row, ‘Theresa, I love you. I love you, I love you.’ And I go, ‘And I’m going to ask you to marry me. I don’t know if you’re going to say yes, but I’m going to ask you.’ So for me, when I got to the final episode and the engagement was about to happen, I was very confident that she was my person, 100 percent confident.”
On April 12, 2024, Gerry and Theresa announced that they would be divorcing three months after their Golden Wedding. Here’s if Gerry and Theresa had a prenup before the split.
Do Gerry and Theresa have a prenup?
Gerry and Theresa had a prenup before their wedding. They confirmed to Good Morning America’s Juju Chang and the news reporter said that “they highly recommend it to others,” They also plan to stay in each other’s lives as they’re “best friends.”
One agreement that happened during their divorce was that Theresa would have to return the ring. I think that’s the rule, I think I have to give this ring back. Sad to say,” she said. Gerry chimed in, “But, you know what, we don’t have to give back the memories.”
According to some insider sources to OK! Magazine, the two were split on the decision. Gerry reportedly didn’t want a prenup, while Theresa has been vocal about having one. “He’s offended that she doesn’t trust him,” the source told a publication. “They’re bickering all the time now — unless the cameras are on.”
The two revealed the reasoning behind their divorce. “Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and — and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to — dissolve our marriage,” Turner told Juju Chang in an interview for “Good Morning America.”
“Get a divorce?” Chang clarified. “Yes,” Turner said.
“We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched ‘The Golden Bachelor,’ and I don’t think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,” Nist said. “We want none of that to change for anybody.”
Turner said, “The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, it’s been how dedicated both of us are to our families … So we look at these situations and I think we just feel like it’s best for the happiness of each of us to, to live apart.”
When asked how this fell apart after both said they were 100% committed to making this work, Nist said “that was the plan.”
“We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at homes after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision.”
According to multiple sites, Gerry’s net worth is estimated to be around $1.5 million while Theresa’s net worth is estimated to be around between $500,000 and $1 million.
Family law attorney and CEO of HelloPrenup Julia Rodgers is a family law attorney and CEO of HelloPrenup told Bustle that she advises the couple to pursue a prenup. “preserve familial comfort and relationships,” Rodgers says. “Theresa’s kids are going to want to know her assets are protected. Gerry’s kids are going to want to know his assets are protected.”
Despite what the Internet says about where the couple stands about any of their about-to-be marital problems, the two aim to readily communicate really well into their marriage.
“At our age, we’ve probably made our fair share of blunders,” Gerry told People. “We’ve learned those lessons, and we’ve brought them forward with us. We can only focus on the things that are fun ahead of us. The commitment is critical. That’s the most fundamental part of this, and building the trust in each other and the ability to find the right way to communicate all the time. But it’s easy.”“We read some of the things online, and it’s really a source of good entertainment for us,” Gerry continued. “But talking constantly about things that come up, whether it’s wedding-related or relationship-related or whatever the case may be, has really helped us so much.” Theresa agreed, calling it, “really interesting to read about yourself online when people really don’t know.” She adds, “But we also don’t really have that much time to read things like this. There’s so many good messages that we get from very lovely people who say such wonderful things, so I tend to not even see the other stuff.”
On what marriage means to the couple in the later stages of life, they agree that they still have the core tenets in place. “It still means making a commitment to one person and saying that you were the person I choose to be with and to spend the rest of my life with and to have every adventure and make part of every adventure that I have,” Theresa says. “It’s making a statement and a public statement to the world that this is the person I choose.” Gerry concluded, “I look at Theresa, and I see the most unselfish person I’ve ever met, a person that I can trust with literally anything,” he says. “And that’s going to make her a wonderful partner.”
Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Books.
To get more of an inside scoop, check out Los Angeles Times writer Amy Kaufman’s book, Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure, for a deep dive into the Bachelor franchise. The book uncovers the secrets of Bachelor Nation, from how much the Bachelor and the Bachelorette are paid to the rules contestants have to follow, that producers don’t want fans to know. It’s a must-read for any Bachelor Nation member.
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