Who Is the ‘Golden Bachelor’? All About Gerry Turner

Gerry Turner has found the new love of his life.

The 72-year-old, who starred on ABC’s new Bachelor spinoff show, The Golden Bachelor, proposed to Theresa Nist, 70, in the season finale, which aired in November 2023.

“When I got to the final episode and the engagement was about to happen, I was very confident that she was my person,” Turner told PEOPLE after it was revealed the two were engaged. “100% confident. And I was also that confident that she was going to say ‘yes’ to me.”

Before the show aired, Turner — whose first name is pronounced GAIR-ee — said he was pushed to audition by his two daughters after their mother, Turner’s wife, died. Though the pressure could make any man nervous, he told GMA that being the first elderly man to lead the show “feels amazing and it’s still sinking in.”

Ahead of the show’s premiere in September 2023, Turner shared with PEOPLE that he was thrilled with how his first night went.

“It was literally like Christmas morning,” he said, referring to greeting all the women. “Every package [that] gets opened is better than the previous. At 7:30 the next morning, I was still wide awake and still wired that the producers told me and almost literally took me by the arm and said I had to leave. I can’t tell you how much fun I had in those nine hours.”

Though he was seemingly impressed with them all, he added that he made sure to keep his eye on the prize throughout the season as he looked for “the one.” And he found her in Nist, whom he married in January 2024 during a live televised wedding special on ABC.

“From the first sip of chocolate shake to the last taste of Costa Rican coffee, I learned that you are the woman I can’t live without,” Turner said to Nist at the altar. “I learned that you make me calm, with the touch of your hand. I’ve learned that you make me laugh with the easy comfort of long-lost friends.”

So, who is the Golden Bachelor? Here’s everything to know about Gerry Turner, the latest addition to the growing Bachelor franchise.

He lives in Indiana but plans to move down south

Turner is from Indiana where he lives “in his dream house on a beautiful lake,” according to The Golden Bachelor’s official synopsis.

However, Turner told PEOPLE that he and Nist, who is from New Jersey, plan to move south to Charleston, South Carolina.

“One of the things that I think fate played a hand in is the possibility of where we might wind up living,” Turner told PEOPLE. “For the last couple of years, when my family gets together, I’ve talked about moving to South Carolina, and it’s an idea I’ve toyed with. And then in conversation with Theresa, a private moment, she’s saying, ‘Well, yeah, my son lives near Charleston in South Carolina.’ ”

Turner was concerned that whoever he ended up with might not be on the same page regarding where to live, but with Nist, it wasn’t a problem.

“And all of a sudden it’s like, there’s a big problem that is gone,” Turner said. “The issue of compromising on where to live and how to reconcile families and all of that is, it’s no longer an issue.”

He was excited to be the first-ever Golden Bachelor

As the first senior-aged man to lead the Bachelor spin-off show, Turner set the precedent for men dating in their 70s. But the pressure didn’t get to him and he remained positive about his prospects, saying he “has nothing to lose.”

In ABC’s promotional video for the show, the network teased some snippets of what audiences could expect with Turner as the lead.

“He posts his thirst traps in a leather-bound album. His DMs have postage,” the teaser trailer revealed. ”He gets the early bird special any time he wants. If you call him, he’ll answer the phone. He doesn’t have gray hair, he has ‘wisdom highlights.’ Florida wants to retire, and move to him. He’s Gerry.”

In his interview with PEOPLE, Turner shared that it didn’t take too much convincing for him to sign up for the show.

“When they sent me a text about it, I had seen the ads throughout the show. In the back of my mind, I thought, ‘That would be quite an experience. That would be a lot of fun,’ ” he said. “So when they really hit me up hard with it one night, they didn’t have to push as hard as what they maybe thought. It was a back-and-forth in my head before I decided to actually fill out a questionnaire online, but I’m certainly glad I did.”

He is a retired restaurateur with many hobbies

Before he started his journey as a reality TV star, Turner was a restaurateur, though he is now retired. He also has a number of hobbies that he is excited to share with Nist, including pickleball and golf.

“He’s often busy hosting barbecues, playing pickleball, cheering on his favorite Chicago sports teams, four-wheeling, and spending time with friends and family at restaurants and local haunts,” his official description reads.

He was previously married

Turner married his high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1974. The two lived a “full and happy life” until Toni’s sudden death in 2017, six weeks after she retired and fell ill.

“She got robbed. Every day that goes by, that’s the thought that I have,” Turner told GMA. “I have her picture on a dresser in my closet. Every morning I give her a nod, ‘So what do you think about this?’ For awhile it was like, I was having a hard time figuring out if she would be okay. But we always told each other when one of us goes, we want the other to be happy. She’s up there rooting [for me]. She’s saying, ‘Yeah, Gerry. Do this.’ “

He told PEOPLE in September 2023 that after her death, he sold the lake house they planned on retiring in together and he sought grief counseling, which was “life-changing.”

“About three years in, I wasn’t sure I was on track. I wasn’t sure I was mending properly,” Turner admitted. “I remember having two sessions with the counselor, and he goes, ‘You’re fine. You just got to give yourself credit for being OK.’ I changed my mind about counseling during that time. That is something I would recommend to anyone who’s had loss, that just doesn’t feel like they’re getting over it quickly enough or in a healthy way.”

He has two daughters and two granddaughters

Turner raised two daughters, Angie and Jenny, with his deceased wife. He also has two granddaughters: Charlee and Payton.

Turner’s daughters encouraged him to join the show and were cheering him on when he got chosen as the first Golden Bachelor.

“They started screaming and everybody gathered round,” he said on GMA of his daughter’s reactions to the news.

Bachelor host Jesse Palmer delivered the good news to Turner on a video call. Turner’s daughters and grandchildren joined him on the call, with Angie telling Palmer, “One of those 25 ladies will be super lucky … they’ll be like ‘Yes, I scored!’ ”

Angie, Jenny and Charlee’s opinions meant everything to Turner as he went through the process, and he knew Nist was the right pick when he saw how overjoyed his family was that he chose her. He described the moment they saw Nist was the winner as “pretty magical.”

“Because of the way the sun was and the walk that Theresa had to do, she was a silhouette for an awfully long time. And my daughters tell me, ‘Please let it be Theresa. Please let it be Theresa,’ ” Turner told PEOPLE. “And when the light hit enough so that they could see that it was her, they were ecstatic. They were in tears. They were thrilled.”

He added, “So I’m very happy that that’s their reaction because I do rely on them a lot to reinforce decisions that I’ve tentatively made.”