'Golden Bachelor' divorce: Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist announce split

“The Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner and wife Theresa Nist are getting a divorce.

The couple, who wed earlier this year on the first season of the ABC reality show, announced the split on “Good Morning America” Friday morning.

“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 on “GMA.”

Turner, 72, and Nist, 70, married on live television in January with the season’s other contestants in attendance, ages 60 to mid-70s.

“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.”

USA TODAY has reached out to reps for comment.

The former couple noted that deciding where to settle down contributed to their decision to split.

“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,” Nist told Chang.

The pair, while holding hands, emphasized they had not fallen out of love.

“I still love this person,” Turner said. “There’s no doubt in my mind, I still am in love with her. I root for her every day.

Turner was married to his wife Toni Turner for 43 years before she died in 2017 and Nist was married to husband Billy Nist for 42 years before he died in 2017.

Turner and Nist hit it off from the Sept. 28 “Golden Bachelor” premiere, with Nist arriving at the Bachelor Mansion on her 70th birthday with the other 21 contestants. The two kissed that night after Turner smeared birthday cupcake frosting on his lips and asked Nist for clean-up help. “That was the best present ever,” Nist said after the smooch.

Feelings grew when the couple went on an Episode 2 solo date. After Nist calmed Turner during a harried Los Angeles highway drive, the two bonded over a diner dinner. They found common ground and solace in discussing the loss of their respective spouses.

By Episode 8, Turner had expressed love and spent a night with each of the show’s two finalists, Nist and Leslie Fhima, 65, a Minneapolis-based fitness instructor. Turner giddily told Fhima, “I think you’re the one” during their intimate televised time, which later caused controversy as Fhima tearfully told Turner she was “heartbroken” by the sudden reversal of feelings and expression of love.

Turner proposed to Nist on the “The Golden Bachelor” Nov. 30 finale.

“I had a million things going through my mind: Is he going to ask me to marry him? Is he going to ask Leslie? Will he ask no one?” Nist told USA TODAY in December. “It was nerve-wracking. So I was completely surprised.”

Turner said his feelings for Nist and his decision to propose were cemented after off-camera discussions the two had during the Fantasy Suites week.

“We were able to talk without the witness of the whole country: No camera, no microphones,” said Turner. “I saw the real Theresa. All of a sudden it was like, I thought something was here. Now I know it’s here. I told her, ‘I’m going to ask you to marry me. I don’t know if you will or not. But I’m going to ask.’”

Contributing: Bryan Alexander

Read more at usatoday.com.