It’s been less than a month since Season 1 Golden Bachelor contestants Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist announced their divorce, just shortly after getting married and just a few months after the show aired their engagement on ABC. It’s been so recent on the TV schedule that wedding guest and former Bachelor franchise contestant Ashley Iaconetti Haibon still has some of the nail polish from their wedding on her toenails, but as time passes, some new details and rumors are coming to light. The latest is from Iaconetti’s podcast co-host Ben Higgins.
The BTS Rumor About Cornfields That May Help Explain Why Gerry And Theresa Split
The two were speaking out about how The Golden Bachelor wedding was still “fresh memories,” also noting that it really wasn’t even “that far past yesterday” and “feels like it was yesterday," when the rumor came up. How did Higgins bring it up?
This is a rumor of a generalization of a conversation that Gerry and Theresa had and I think you’re gonna find it interesting. This rumor is speculative but it does seem to carry some weight in truth that something like this did happen between them and was kind of the culprit for the breakup.
Higgins himself blatantly stated this was a rumor and asked fans take his narrative with a grain of salt, but there’s something so compelling about hearing a woman who is used to city life and a job in wealth management not being able to slow down to rural Indiana pace, allegedly of course. He shared during the “Single at a Wedding with Chris Soules” episode:
There’s a rumor that on Theresa’s visit to Indiana Gerry picked Theresa up at the airport; it’s about two hours from where Gerry lives. Now, that’s just the thing about living in Indiana; you’re gonna drive to an airport two hours every time, trust me. After he picks her up, they’re both [allegedly] excited but there have already been some issues in the relationship. Already been some grumblings and some things happening… they’re not seeing eye to eye in life.
Both Higgins and Iaconetti Haibon attest to the long drive between airports and homes in small towns and rural areas. Higgins is from Indiana, actually, the town of Warsaw, which has a population of around 15,000 people. (Iaconetti Haibon graduated high school in a town with about 50,000 people.)
If you are remembering back to the TV show airing and subsequent interviews Nist did, one of the big things that was important to Theresa was being able to access and see her family all the time. Ashley pointed out this is a problem when the airport is hours away. Then, Ben continued:
They’re driving those two hours from indianapolis to his lake house. And most of that drive is through cornfields. Most of that drive is through agriculture. And untouched land in a lot of ways. The rumor is that Theresa made the comment to Gerry, ‘Wow, look at what could be done if they developed it?’ ….
Gerry’s comment back to her was reportedly, “You don’t take land from a farmer." Apparently, allegedly, and reportedly, this is when things really took a turn for the newlyweds.
Listen, Ashley and Chris immediately called out Ben on this podcast for “great stories,” so for a second I thought the cornfield bent was a joke or anecdote, but he stood by his guns in the podcast and said the rumor actually feels like it fits to him. He stated because of Theresa’s city background and job interests and because of where Gerry comes from and the way he’s grown up living there were just unforeseen problems. It’s an interesting dichotomy and ultimately, what we do know for certain is that it didn’t work out.
Still, it’s a little disappointing given how “refreshing” Season 1 of The Golden Bachelor really was for viewers.
How The Bachelor Contestants Feel About The Golden Bachelor Contestants Citing “Distance” As Breakup Reason
In a separate part of their The Ben And Ashley/Almost Famous podcast, Ashley and Ben spoke with Chris Soules, who also broke up with his small screen partner Whitney Bischoff and cited “distance” as the official reason for the breakup. (You can catch his season and others of The Bachelor with a Hulu subscription.) While Soules admitted there were other factors that contributed to their breakup and that it was maybe not “quite 100%” of the reason they split, he did defend “distance” as a real reason to give the public, stating it's probably at least partially accurate.
Part of any relationship is proximity to your partner, right? So I don’t think you can put one thing on my personal relationship and why it was not successful. Distance, after the show I think has a lot of effects on relationships just because you’re living a different life right off the bat.
Iaconetti Haibon agreed, though both hosts did try to pry a little more out of Soules when it came to the reasons for his own split. He did say it’s complicated --he's a farmer in Iowa for example -- and that people have a right to some privacy in their decisions – including Gerry and Theresa.
So there you have it. Gerry and Theresa put out a message about their split a few weeks back and wrote that they "looked closely at [their] situation," confirming it was their "living situation" that really just wasn't going to work out. Meanwhile, that doesn't mean all hope for love is lost. The Golden Bachelorette will be hitting ABC's schedule next!
