Golden Bachelor's Theresa Nist Reveals Her DMs Are Flooded with Suitors 'Younger Than My Son': 'I'm Just Baffled' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Theresa Nist.Photo:ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

Theresa Nisthas no shortage of suitors — and some of them are half her age!

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE,The Golden Bacheloralum, 71, opens up about how she’s navigating dating again since her divorce fromGerry Turner.

Right now, she’s staying off dating apps but that doesn’t mean people aren’t sliding into her DMs.

“I do get approached through Instagram direct messages, but you wouldn’t believe how young these guys are,” she says. “They’re so young that they’re younger than my son!”

(L) Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty

Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty

Nist found love on the inaugural season of the ABC dating show, andgot engaged to Turnerduring the finale episode, which aired in November 2023. A few months later, theytied the knotduring a live televised wedding special in January 2024.

But after justthree months of marriage, the newlyweds announcedtheir decision to divorceduring a joint interview onGood Morning America, which aired on April 12, 2024 — the same day Turnerofficially filed.

On Dec. 11,Turner revealed he was diagnosed witha slow growing bone marrow cancer weeks before their split.Nist told PEOPLEhis diagnosis “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.”

“If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know. But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship,” she explains. “Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”

Theresa Nist.Anthony Behar/PictureGroup for Disney Entertainment Television

Anthony Behar/PictureGroup for Disney Entertainment Television

Though Nist wants to find her next great love, she admits she hasn’t been on any dates since the divorce.

“I have been asked, and I’ve said no,” she says. “I don’t know. I’m more clear on what I want, so I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I definitely do want to be with someone. I do,” she continues. “I think life is so much better when you’re with someone, but I know that it’s even hard for young people to find people. Imagine how much harder it gets … I’m 71. That number scares people.”

The reality star confesses that she’s “not sure” if she’d like to get married again, but she’d like to find a partner who has a sense of “passion.”

“Like passion for something you love to do, something that makes you wake up and want to get out of bed in the morning,” she says of her dating requirements. “It’s intelligence. It’s to be able to speak on the same level. And that’s really unique when you start talking to someone, whether or not you, you’re understanding each other at your core.”

Though she’d like to “date someone younger,” Nist says she’d like to consider potential partners who are “maybe 10 years younger” at the most.

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“To me, age, it doesn’t matter up to a point,” she explains. “[But] too young, we are just not culturally the same, we didn’t experience the same things growing up, the same music, the same movies. It’s hard to have a conversation. And I don’t think that anything is too old.”

“It’s just your energy. It’s who you are basically,” she adds.

source: people.com