Last week Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist, the boomer couple who charmed millions by falling in love on “The Golden Bachelor” last fall and getting hitched in a live, two-hour special on ABC in January, announced they were planning to divorce after just three months of marriage. The news earned the septuagenarians the dubious honor of having the shortest marriage in the history of “The Bachelor,” which is hardly known as a launching pad for stable relationships.
Although it was full of the usual “Bachelor” trappings — the endless rose ceremonies, the ludicrous group dates — the show also felt like it broke new ground by depicting people over 60 as multidimensional human beings, and by tackling heavy subjects, like grief, aging and divorce, in an authentic way.