Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner and his fiancé, Theresa Nist, have a lot to celebrate this holiday season.
“Going to be a very Gerry Christmas with Theresa and our blended family,” Gerry, 72, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, December 9.
In the photo, Theresa, 70, posed alongside her daughter, Jen Woolston, her daughter-in-law, Amanda Nist, and Gerry’s two daughters, Jenny Young and Angie Turner. All of the women posed on a staircase with the younger generation donning a red sweatshirt that read “A Very Gerry Christmas,” with Theresa’s in pink.
The post comes just weeks after Gerry and Theresa made history when they became the first Golden Bachelor couple to get engaged during the season 1 finale. During the After the Final Rose special, the pair also announced their plans to tie the knot in a televised Golden Wedding via ABC on Thursday, January 4.
As for why the couple is eager to wed so quickly, Gerry explained that their age played a role in the decision.
“We’re old! Think about it this way: You can wait a year in your 20s because that might be 3 percent of your remaining life,” he explained on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast in November. “When you’re in your 70s, a year could be 10 percent or 20 percent of the time you have left.”
Gerry also added that he and the New Jersey native “didn’t want to put off” something that they “really felt was right.” Theresa noted that the couple plan to start their life together “just outside” the Charleston, South Carolina area.
“He’s always had this thought for the last two years and no one really knew that,” Theresa said. “It was all like, ‘Are you going to move to Indiana?’ But I wasn’t moving to Indiana and I have a son and a daughter and I live four minutes from my daughter and my three grandsons, and I have a son who lives in South Carolina.”
One day prior to the pair’s happy ending, a report regarding Gerry’s previous relationships was published by The Hollywood Reporter and alleged he had dated a handful of women since the 2017 death of his first wife, Toni. One of these women, who went by the name Carolyn in the article, claimed Gerry fat-shamed her.
“My only response is that I have so many positive things in my life right now,” Turner replied when asked about the report by The Los Angeles Times in November. “I have the wonderful love of Theresa, my partner. I don’t have time to reflect on comments like this. I’m happy to look forward.”