Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner Told Fiancée in the Fantasy Suite He Planned to Propose: ‘I Was Very Confident’ (Exclusive)

The following post contains spoilers from Thursday night’s season finale The Golden Bachelor.

In the final on Thursday The Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner proposed to Theresa Nist – and she said yes. And then the couple announced that they would tie the knot live on ABC on January 4, 2024.

Gerry, 72, tells PEOPLE that he actually informed Theresa, 70, in the Fantasy Suite that he planned to pop the question.

“Part of our conversation at Fantasy Suites [was] the first time I really seriously told her I love her,” says Gerry. “It was almost an announcement of excitement. I said three times in a row, ‘Theresa, I love you. I love you I love you.’ And I say, ‘And I’m going to ask you to marry me. I don’t know if you will agree, but I will ask you.’ So when I got to the last episode and the engagement was about to happen, I was very confident that she was my person, 100 percent sure.”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

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While the retired restaurateur entered the finale feeling “confident that she was going to say ‘yes'”, he admits that Theresa “didn’t have the whole story” before the day of the proposal.

“When she came down the path, she didn’t know if she was the first person walking or the second person or the only person,” says Gerry.

Little did Theresa know that Gerry had already sent home another finalist, Leslie Fhim. “I never once thought I was the only person,” Theresa tells PEOPLE.

Even with a heads up from Gerry, Theresa was feeling a little hesitant heading into the final. “I was convinced, but then, let’s see, actually, if this will actually happen,” she says.

Of course it did, and Theresa and Gerry completed the inauguration The Golden Bachelor season engaged with plans to marry in January. Theresa says a lot of what happened in the Fantasy Suite brought her and Gerry to that point.

“What they didn’t see at Fantasy Suites was everything,” she says. “When he gave me the Fantasy Suite card, I accepted it with great enthusiasm because I really wanted to go in and explore deeper. And we did that. It was the first time I really showed him my true personality. He knew, but not that deeply.”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

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Fantasy Suites proved just as crucial for Gerry.

“I had this checklist in my head of four or five things that were, ‘I had to familiarize myself with this stuff,'” he says. “And so she agreed to go to the Fantasy Suite, and those four or five things, before I even had a chance to ask them, she threw it out. She said, ‘Okay, this is going to happen and I want you to know this and that.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh my God, we’re totally on the same page.'”

Theresa says it “just clicked” for her and Gerry at that moment.

“After that episode, I called Theresa on the phone, and I said, ‘You know, I just watched myself fall in love with you,'” says Gerry.

Theresa, however, says she started having feelings for Gerry right out of the limo.

“I got out of that limo, not knowing or expecting anything, simply [that] there is a great adventure and maybe there would be love,” she says. “But when I got out of that limo, I stood next to him and said, ‘Oh my God, I’m so attracted to this man. I’m in real trouble.’ I got butterflies right away.”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

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Gerry treated Theresa to her first one-on-one date, which she calls “spectacular in the moonlight.”

“She got my attention when I had a physical reaction to her putting her hand on my shoulder while we were in the Corvette,” says Gerry. “The headlights were going out and stuff, and I was really nervous. And she put her hand on my shoulder and I physically felt the tension disappear from me. And it’s like, ‘OK, now I know I have to pay close attention to this person.'”

The pair couldn’t stop talking in that first one-on-one conversation, but they were also paying close attention to what the other was saying.

“We could both talk non-stop and look at each other and still hear what the other person had to say,” recalls Gerry. “I came home that night. It’s like, ‘That was pretty amazing.’ You usually don’t listen to the other person, and I honestly listened and couldn’t keep quiet. It was great.”

Although Gerry still had a string of women left at that point, “I would keep going back and thinking about her,” he says of his now-fiancée. “There’s a certain quality about Theresa that whenever I hear her voice, whether it’s in the background or on the phone, I almost laugh because I know she’s passionate about everything she does.”

Theresa admires similar qualities in Gerry. “He is so positive, friendly and dynamic, he has ambition and drive and he is exciting,” she said. “He wants to have a really great life and he’s excited about every moment of his life and I am too. We have a lot of fun and it gets better and better every time we talk. We both know we made the right decision.”

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The Golden Bachelor can be streamed on Hulu. AND Golden wedding will air on January 4, 2024 on ABC.

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