“The Golden Bachelor” contestant Maria Trice, who left after the first week of the senior-dating series last year, now says she “dodged a bullet” in the wake of the announcement that Gerry Turner and the woman he did choose are getting divorced after just three months.
Marrying after a whirlwind courtship is like “trying to force a shoe that doesn’t fit; you’re going to get corns on your toes,” said Trice, one of 22 women vying for the widower’s affections.
She has no regrets.
“I think I dodged a bullet,” she told People after news broke that Turner and Theresa Nist were breaking up following their January TV marriage. “The interesting part about being at this stage and this age is people have stuff, even if they do their due diligence of finding out as much as they can about everyone, I think other stuff just comes up. Men in particular.”
Turner and Nist said they were still in love but that the logistics and geography just didn’t work. They announced their split Friday in a joint interview on “Good Morning America.” Widower Turner, 74, is committed to living at his lakeside digs near family in Indiana, while Nist, 70, is based in New Jersey.
Trice said she knew right away that she was not attracted.
“When I first met him, I was like, he’s not for me,” she told People, saying of Nist, “She was so excited. I was like, he’s nice, he’s handsome. I didn’t feel a spark.”