Gerry Turner, 74, and Theresa Nist, 70, have decided to go their separate ways.
The couple, who met and fell in love on the first season of The Golden Bachelor, shared the news with Juju Chang on Good Morning America Friday.
“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 Chang.
“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.”
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Turner proposed to Nist during the season 1 finale of The Golden Bachelor and the former couple married during a lavish ceremony in the beginning of the year.
Initially Turner and Nist said they were completely committed to each other, which meant one of them would have to move as Turner lives in Indiana and Nist in New Jersey, but they later discovered they were too “dedicated” to their families.
“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.”
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“The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, it’s been how dedicated both of us our to our families,” Turner said. “So we look at these conversations and we both think it’s best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.”
While Turner and Nist will live separate lives, they don’t plan to forget the good times the two shared.
“I still love this person. There’s no doubt in my mind, I still am in love with her. I root for her every day,” Turner said.
“I still love him,” Nist replied.