Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner reveals in his new memoir that he struggled with suicidal ideation within the wake of his break up from Theresa Nist, Us Weekly can verify.
In an excerpt from the e book, titled Golden Years: What I’ve Realized From Love, Loss, and Actuality TV, and obtained by TMZ on Monday, November 3, Turner, 74, particulars his disgrace — and fleeting suicidal ideas — after he and Nist, 72, introduced their divorce in April 2024. (The Golden Bachelor exes tied the knot three months earlier on ABC.)
“If there could be a whole lot of feedback in regards to the rumors and press about me, irrespective of how nicely meant and sympathetic they had been (Gerry we’re-so-sorry stuff), I didn’t need to go,” he wrote within the excerpt, which has been confirmed by Us. “I began avoiding folks altogether, whether or not by strolling circuitously to my vacation spot so I didn’t cross a good friend’s home or parking in the back of the grocery store and strolling via the much less trafficked entrance so I didn’t cross the greeter.”
Turner added, “Folks making an attempt to be supportive had been probably the most tough to take care of. I may simply write off the haters, however how may I inform these whose intentions had been good, ‘Please, cease speaking about it!’ I used to be sick of speaking about myself. I needed to be invisible.”
He discovered himself battling intrusive ideas, day and night time.
“At a sure level,” he wrote, “I didn’t even need to get away from bed. Once I went to sleep at night time, I’d attempt to discover one thing constructive and uplifting to consider, however the horrible feedback had been too loud.”
Turner continued, “One night time, whereas I used to be mendacity in mattress and staring up on the ceiling, all of it turned an excessive amount of, and for the briefest of moments, I considered placing a gun to my head. Simply as shortly although, I considered [daughters] Jenny and Angie. I may by no means do this to my daughters, however I don’t consider I really needed to kill myself. My suicidal ideas had been extra of an expression of my need to vanish.”
The fact star mentioned that he was “used to having a marathon mentality whereby I may endure any type of ache for a time as a result of I knew it could finally go away. This appeared prefer it was by no means going away.”
In October, Turner revealed that he’s fortunately engaged to Lana Sutton. Final week, he appeared on the “Bachelor Blissful Hour” podcast final week to deal with criticism that he had moved on too quickly after divorcing one yr earlier.
“I don’t need to sound disrespectful in any respect. I don’t consider myself as being divorced,” Turner mentioned on the October 28 episode, explaining, “It was such a short while and it was, you understand, in a synthetic surroundings that I’ve to cease myself and say, ‘Yeah, you understand what? I’m divorced. It’s not like I’m that man that was married 43 years after which did nothing.’ I’m divorced.”
Turner and Nist met in the course of the inaugural season of 2023’s The Golden Bachelor, and exchanged vows throughout a televised ceremony in January 2024.
Turner filed for divorce that April, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of their marriage as the rationale for the break up.
In Golden Years, Turner claimed he informed Religion Martin — the second runner-up on the present — that he felt “trapped” forward of marrying Nist. Whereas recalling the second throughout an unique interview with Us, Turner shared that he “felt like [he] was doing the suitable factor” by strolling down the aisle.
