The Golden Bachelor’s inaugural season started off with minimal drama between the contestants, but the tables finally turned last week when Kathy Swarts accused Theresa Nist of bragging about her connection with Gerry Turner.
Theresa, 70, recently addressed the tension — and said she never intended to make Kathy, also 70, uncomfortable.
“This past episode was a bit hard for me to watch,” Theresa wrote via Instagram on Monday, October 16, referring to the October 12 episode of the ABC series. “Never in a million years did I think that I was going to find myself involved in drama. That is so not who I am. I just thought that I was able to be open and honest with a new friend about how I was feeling. As you saw, I acknowledged that everyone felt a connection to Gerry, and I welcomed that. We were all on a journey to see who was the best fit for Gerry.”
Theresa noted that Gerry, 72, advised her to try to move past the situation if she truly believed she didn’t intentionally hurt Kathy’s feelings. “I never ever intended to make Kathy or anyone feel less than,” Theresa continued. “As Edith [Aguirre] said, ‘It’s the tension that we’re dating just one man.’ Of course!”
Theresa went on to thank her fans for their “kind messages” in the aftermath of the drama. “I am grateful to all of you that could see that I had only good intentions and that I felt absolutely terrible when I realized I had hurt Kathy’s feelings,” she wrote. “Thank you to my friends and family that know me and know that I would never mean to make someone else feel bad in any way, and to my new friends that can already see that in me as well.”
The tension began when Kathy accused Theresa of lording her connection with Gerry over the other women after their successful one-on-one date to the diner. “I feel like you’re dismissing me, like, ‘He and I are going off into the sunset. Go pack because you’re going home,'” Kathy told her costar. “That’s how you’ve made me feel sometimes.”
As Theresa began to cry, Kathy continued lambasting her for gushing about Gerry. “When you say things like you guys have a huge connection, I think that’s the kind of stuff that sounds possessive, territorial, and [like], ‘Get the hell out of my way, he’s mine,’” Kathy said. “That’s not a pretty picture, Theresa.”
A mortified Theresa then spoke to Gerry, who told her not to worry about the drama unless she truly felt like her comments were out of pocket. In a confessional interview, however, he admitted that the whole thing could become a “stumbling block” for his and Theresa’s budding romance. He then gave her a rose at the rose ceremony.
The Golden Bachelor airs on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
