Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist won’t spend their golden years together, but that’s what you often get with reality TV romance.
On Friday, The Golden bachelor stars – the septuagenarians who got married three months ago at a spectacular TV wedding – announced that they are getting divorced during a Good morning America sit down. Shortly afterwards, Turner filed legal papers to make it official, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of their marriage.
“Thérèsa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we have taken a close look at our situation, our living situation, etc. and – and we have mutually come to the conclusion that it is probably time for our marriage to be dissolved,” said Turner continues GMA.
While most Bachelor education couples don’t stay together after the final rose, there was a glimmer of hope for the veteran couple in the franchise offshoot. They were sold as older, wiser and more committed than their younger counterparts. However, experts remind Yahoo Entertainment that they still came together in an “artificial context” and no matter how the spin-off was branded, it remains a “game show” – one that never relied on couples staying together for its success of it.
‘It’s very easy to fall in love with the hypothetical’
While Turner and Nist may have taken a more mature approach to the relationship than their younger TV counterparts, they still “got together in an artificial context,” relationship expert Heather Dugan tells Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s very easy to fall in love with the hypothetical. When your need, desire, loneliness or, in this case, the pressure and competition of a reality TV phenomenon are particularly great, it’s easy to throw your own hopes and dreams onto the other person and they seem perfect for you.
Once the cameras stopped rolling, reality became clear to the couple. Their maturity probably allowed them to quickly cut their losses.
“Ultimately it comes down to falling in love with someone you can work with,” the Date like an adult And The friendship upgrade says author. “I think as older adults in their 70s – probably with a rearview mirror – they are aware of what that really looks like. Some of their priorities… turned out to be non-negotiables.”
But did Turner and Nist call it quits too soon, because they had never moved in together after their marriage? She stayed in New Jersey while he stayed in Indiana. On GMANist said they looked at house after house in South Carolina to see what their compromise would be, “but we never got to the point where we made that decision.”
“Ideally, you go through at least one cycle of seasons [together],” says Dugan. “You see how each other deals with daily decisions, constant pressure and crises. A burst water pipe or a layover at the airport is not a bad thing. I doubt if they experienced that together before they entered into their commitment.”
Interestingly, their age may have actually worked against them.
“Rigidity can be a big problem for older, adult people,” says Dugan. “Just learning how open you are to the compromises that have to be made, that’s a big deal. If one of you is always bending, or if neither of you can, it will be difficult to get into a comfort zone where you can just enjoy life together. Everyone has had these decades to find their own best way of doing things.”
As for what it says about viewers being involved in the lives of two strangers: “We all want to strive for love,” Dugan says. “I hope people don’t watch this [divorce] as an indicator of your chance of love in life when you are over 50.” Although it didn’t work out, ABC is counting on it this time The Golden Bachelorette next – “If someone is watching and it gives them hope… then that’s a good thing,” especially amid the loneliness epidemic.
“This is the way these things so often end.”
The truth is, Bachelor education pairs rarely train.
“Enjoy watching The Bachelor is pure cynicism,” Robert Thompson of Syracuse University, a TV and pop culture expert, tells Yahoo. “That’s the fun of it.”
However, “The Golden bachelor “It would be different” with participants who “have been in relationships for a while, have matured and are not so superficial,” he continues. “We would go back to how we felt then The Bachelor first started in 2002, when people were seriously looking for love. Now, especially with the urgency of this separation, there is additional branding of something else coming across The golden bachelor shows we’ve been there and done that. This is the way these things so often end.”
Despite the spinoff being touted as something different, it was ultimately clear that it was “pretty much the same old thing – only the participants were older,” says Thompson.
So may this serve as a reminder of that The Bachelor and its counterparts are entertainment. Viewers shouldn’t expect more – and many won’t.
“The whole nature of it is not very receptive to long-term relationships,” Thompson says. “The process is more like a game show than seeing the birth of a lifelong relationship. You don’t really care if they stay together. It just depends on who manages to win the game and get the final rose. Once that’s done, that’s kind of the closure of it. It’s exciting to see how it gets to this point. When we hear a year later – in this case three months later – that they are no longer together, it has become somewhat the norm. … I don’t think the couple staying together has been an important part of that franchise.
In light of Turner and Nist’s rift, Thompson doesn’t expect ABC to suddenly cancel a second season The golden bachelor. After all, we’re talking about the show again and it wouldn’t be if the couple had stayed together. Plus, this is all lucrative for ABC. The network not only aired the show, which got good ratings, and then the live TV wedding, but also booked the couple for Good morning America for their big break-up interview once things blew up and then more of the sit-down aired on Friday Nightline.
“It’s interesting how ABC squeezes every drop out of these things,” Thompson says.
