Gerry Turner and ex-wife Theresa Nist have reunited for the first time since their now-contentious divorce during the Golden Bachelor season 2 finale.
Doing the Wednesday, November 12, live broadcast, host Jesse Palmer revealed that Gerry, 74, was in the crowd.
“Look who else is here: Gerry, our first Golden Bachelor,” Jesse, 47, addressed the audience. “[He’s here] with his new fiancée, Lana [Sutton].”
The camera then panned to Gerry and Lana sitting in the crowd, waving back at Jesse and the cameras.
“We wanna say congratulations on you both finding love,” Jesse added. “Excited for you too.”
Jesse subsequently revealed that “so many Golden ladies and Golden men” were also in attendance — sitting across the room. Theresa, 72, was spotted sitting next to Gerry’s runner-up, Leslie Fhima, and Mel Owens’ castoffs from season 2. Jesse did not further address Theresa or Leslie’s appearance.
Gerry famously got engaged to Theresa during season 1 of The Golden Bachelor, which aired in 2023. They tied the knot less than a year later but announced in April 2024 that they went their separate ways after three months of marriage.
Gerry Turner and Lana Sutton. Courtesy of ABC
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations. We’ve looked closely at our living situations and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s time for us to dissolve our marriage,” Gerry said on Good Morning America at the time. “The things that strike 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 live apart.”
While Gerry and Theresa initially blamed their whirlwind divorce on long distance, he later told Us Weekly that more factored into the decision.
“I believe [I was] made out to be a villain,” Gerry claimed to Us exclusively in an October cover story. “Right before Theresa and I went on Good Morning America to announce that divorce, we agreed that we would protect each other, and I don’t feel like that happened. I felt like I was taking the brunt of the situation. And I go, ‘No, wait a minute, that’s not right. It’s 50/50.’”
Theresa Nist sits in the second row next to Leslie Fhima. Courtesy of ABC
Gerry laid out more claims about what went wrong in his My Golden Years memoir, even alleging that he felt “trapped” going into his and Theresa’s wedding day.
Theresa, meanwhile, denied Gerry’s version of events.
“It makes me very sad to think that he felt empty and trapped,” Theresa told Us in a statement last month. “I wish he had said something and just ended it. But at least now I understand why he was so hurtful to me so many times. And I will say this. Those in glass houses should not throw stones. I do wish him all the best.”
Theresa later revealed that she is still hurt by Gerry’s claims.
“All I want is peace and joy and good things in my life,” she said on the“Dear Shandy” podcast earlier this month. “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.”
