Golden Bachelor Insiders Claims This One Conversation Ended Gerry Turner & Theresa Nist’s Marriage

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist’s love blossomed like a seemingly perfect final rose on The Golden Bachelor, with their televised courtship swiftly transitioned from jamming to Journey at an old school diner to exchanging vows in a live-aired ceremony in January. Yet, like many reality couples, this couple’s love story veered off course, and the two announced their divorce after only three months of marriage on Good Morning America back in April.

But like many other alumni of The Bachelor franchise, Ben Higgins, who stared on the 20th season of the flagship series and also appeared on the 11th season of The Bachelorette, has some insider information as to why the two really split. Rumors have been swirling that it has been everything from Nist’s job to the couple’s differing views on where to live. But, according to Higgins, it was a disagreement over something more profound that revealed the cracks in their foundation.

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During a candid spill on the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast with Ashley Iaconetti, Higgins shared an anecdote that might just be the key to understanding the Golden Divorce. “This is a rumor. I want to be clear that as I preface this, this is a rumor of a generalization of a conversation that Gerry and Theresa had, and I think you’re gonna find it interesting,” he prefaced, setting the stage for a revelation that feels both trivial and monumental at once.

He painted a picture of a couple already “not seeing eye-to-eye in life,” driving through the Indiana countryside en route to Turner’s lake house. The vast expanses of cornfields seemed to unmask a deeper rift between them.

“[She said], ‘Wow, look at all this beautiful untouched land. Think about what could be done if they developed it. Condos, office buildings, apartments. Think about the towns that could congregate in these open fields and think about the people that would be interested in moving here. And look at that lake. There’s a lake with only cornfields around it. Think about if they build up a resort where people could vacation to.’ And Gerry’s comment back to her, again, a rumor, was, ‘You don’t take land from a farmer.’”

According to Higgins, this exchange wasn’t just small talk; it signified “a big start to them disagreeing on how they saw the world and what they imagined for the world and how they wanted to invest into the world.” It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as reality TV love stories: a fundamental misalignment in worldview, distilled into a conversation about development and conservation.

Higgins added a thoughtful counterpoint, acknowledging the complexity of balancing economic development with traditional values. “There’s areas that would benefit from development and economically, it makes sense. But there’s a ton of land out there, farmers have plenty of land to farm, and sometimes there’s some misconceptions that, maybe, there’s a shortage, but they’re not making any more new land, so there’s that,” he mused. Despite this, Higgins concluded, such a disagreement seems too slight to unravel a marriage, suggesting, “I think there’s a happy medium that we can all live with. … I don’t think that should have resulted in [a breakup], but you, to each their own, I guess.”

In the end, the unraveling of Turner and Nist’s fairy-tale marriage, much like the final rose that withers away after the season finale, may symbolize more than just a difference of opinion over cornfields. It reflects the broader challenges that face couples who leap from the sparkling chandeliers of TV romance galas into the nuanced, complex real world, where disagreements over seemingly minor issues can expose deep-rooted divides that don’t get discussed in the Fantasy Suite.

Before you go, click here to see the most dramatic splits in Bachelor and Bachelorette history.

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