“Golden Bachelor” Contestant Maria Trice Reacts to Gerry Turner's Divorce News: 'I Dodged a Bullet' (Exclusive)

"Trying to force a shoe that doesn’t fit, you’re going to get corns on your toes," she tells PEOPLE

One Golden Bachelor contestant is reflecting on how she "dodged a bullet" after Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist announced their divorce.

Maria Trice, a contestant who was eliminated in the show's first week, tells PEOPLE exclusively: When "trying to force a shoe that doesn’t fit, you’re going to get corns on your toes."

"I think I dodged a bullet," she adds. "... The interesting part about being at this stage and this age is people have stuff, even if they do their due diligence of finding out as much as they can about everyone, I think other stuff just comes up. Men in particular."

"I hope Teresa is happy," Trice continues.

Related: Golden Bachelor Bombshell! Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist Divorcing After 3 Months of Marriage

Trice, who called Nist "the sweetest," also notes that "getting to know all about" someone is a "dance."

"And at first everyone is showing their inner ambassador and batting their eyes, but when the covers come off, and you see the real reality of who each other are, you’re like, I’m not really sure this is who I want for the rest of my life," she continues.

Adds Trice: "I’ve had a lot of love in my life, real love. She can do it again, and she can do it better. The biggest love you can have is loving yourself and that attracts all sorts of things."

On Friday, April 12, both Nist and Turner revealed in a joint interview on Good Morning America that after "a number of heart-to-heart conversations," they decided to split three months after they married in a televised wedding special.

During the interview, the pair cited distance as a problem, with Turner living at his lake house in Indiana while Nist was based out of New Jersey. At one point, she said Turner considered moving to New Jersey and they both were looking at homes in South Carolina.

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Related: Golden Bachelor's Faith Wants 'Happiness' for Gerry and Theresa amid Divorce: 'My Heart Goes Out to Them' (Exclusive)

As Trice now explains of the couple, Turner lived "in the boondocks far far away," and like Nist, she too was from Jersey when interacting with Turner on the show.

"When I first met him, I was like, he’s not for me. She was so excited. I was like, he’s nice, he’s handsome. I didn’t feel a spark. She did and definitely wanted him and she got him," Trice says. "After three months they must know it’s for the best to not be together."

Trice adds that Turner "seemed to be a nice guy."

"But how well can you know someone after that short period of my time. Once the excitement wore off and reality kicked in, I was like we’ll see," she says. "When you do something really fast like that it takes at least 3-6 months before all the shine is off and you’re dealing with that person raw."

Fellow contestant Faith Martin shared with PEOPLE after the bombshell breakup that her "heart goes out to both of them."

“It's a very difficult situation, and I think it is important to realize that on a show like this, it's so important to be so transparent and so much yourself filled with honesty and truth and ask those right questions,” she said. “That's why it's such a serious thing. You got to ask the right questions to see if things could really, really work, and perhaps they just did not have enough time for that.”

The Golden Bachelor is now streaming on Hulu.

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