Theresa Nist refutes Gerry Turner's memoir claims, alleges temper flare-ups

Now that Gerry Turner has had his say on the demise of his "Golden Bachelor" marriage, ex-wife Theresa Nist feels "forced" to set the record straight.

The 72-year-old took to "Bachelor" alumna Sharleen Joynt's "Dear Shandy" podcast to reveal on the Nov. 4 episode that she's "extremely upset" about Turner's claims about their eight-month relationship, which included a three-month marriage, in a new memoir.

"Not one of the stories that I have read is the way it happened, and some of it is conjured up in (Turner's) mind," Nist said. She later added that she's "cried" plenty over the situation.

The pair started dating as the inaugural "Golden Bachelor" season filmed in August 2023, married in a TV special on Jan. 4 and announced their split on April 12, 2024.

In "Golden Years: What I've Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV," Turner described stress over Nist signing their prenuptial agreement before their wedding, claimed she'd "misrepresented" her finances and implied she was manipulating him.

Nist, who revealed on the podcast that Turner had started writing the book while they were still together, had a different perspective on their brief relationship.

"Overall, Gerry called me names. He criticized me. He put me down. At one point, he said, 'I don't want to hear your opinion.' ... He called me an East Coast snob, something I'd never even heard before I heard it come out of his mouth," she told Joynt and her husband Andy Levine.

"There were so many instances of him having a temper and getting mad at things that I did."

Theresa Nist 'never knew' what Gerry Turner 'was going to get mad at'

Nist also alleged Turner had "yelled at me" the day after their wedding.

"I would say half the time, I was in front of the person I saw on the show," she said. "And half the time I really never knew what he was going to get mad at, why he was going to get mad and when the next shoe was going to drop."

USA TODAY has reached out to Turner's representative for comment.

In his book, Turner touched on his relationships with the other "Golden" contestants, including finalist Leslie Fhima, whom he still finds himself getting "emotional" over.

"You should have called off the wedding. No matter that we were on TV, that didn't matter. This was our lives. You should have stopped it," Nist said. "If you really wanted to be with Leslie, I would have applauded it. I would have supported you. I would have been so happy."

Nist later elaborated on why she felt compelled to share her side of the story, explaining, "Gerry got me to the point where I finally had to say something."

"I would have never said anything. I was keeping this all to myself. I wasn't going to say a word of this," she told Joynt and Levine. "But when someone accuses you of things you didn't do and recounts stories in ways that it didn't happen ... there are so many things he said."

In October, Turner revealed he is engaged to his girlfriend, Lana Sutton. In December 2024, Turner revealed he'd been diagnosed with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, an incurable bone marrow cancer.