Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has revealed he was diagnosed with incurable cancer weeks before his April split from Theresa Nist.
The reality star, 73, shocked the world when he and Nist announced their split after just three months of marriage, after Turner was diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, for which there is no cure.
He told People: ‘I think it’s time, also because it probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April.
‘As Theresa and I were trying very hard to find our lifestyle and where we were going to live and how we were going to make our life work, I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer.’
‘Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make. It was like 10 tons of concrete were just dropped on me. And I was a bit in denial for a while, I didn’t want to admit to it.’
He said it was ‘hard’ sharing the devastating news with Nist who was ‘understandably awestruck’.
He said this played into their widely publicized comments about deciding to split due to location issues, he lives in Indiana while Nist resides in New Jersey.
Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has revealed he was diagnosed with incurable cancer weeks before his April split from Theresa Nist
The reality star, 72, shocked the world when he and Nist announced their split after just three months of marriage, after Turner was diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, for which there is no cure – pictured December 2023
Turner said: ‘I wanted my life to continue on as normal as possible, and that led me to believing that as normal as possible more meant spending time with my family, my two daughters, my two son-in-laws, my granddaughters. And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.’
Turner said his road to discovering the disease began when he sustained a shoulder injury when he was knocked over during a pickleball game three years ago.
When he ‘finally’ visited an orthopedic surgeon, he was found to have unusual blood markers.
He was referred to an oncologist who found he had a ‘blood disorder’ which he said he knew ‘pretty much’ would be cancer.
Turner told Nist about his blood disorder in February and after undergoing additional testing and a bone marrow biopsy, some weeks later his cancer was diagnosed.
He told Nist in mid-March, weeks before their public TV split announcement.
Turner said he now plans to ‘pack as much fun into his life and enjoy every moment’ adding ‘And when I’m gone, I’m gone, but I’m not going to have regrets.’
He wishes his ex Nist ‘all of the good luck in the world’ and said he will always fondly remember the ‘hat glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time’ of their romance.
He said: ‘It was wonderful, and I certainly wish it would’ve had a different ending, that we would’ve found our way, that we would’ve found solutions to a problem. And most of all, that I would not have had a diagnosis that so strongly influenced my decisions and the direction I went.’
Turner and Nist announced the news of their split on Good Morning America in April when they opened up about the reasons for their shock separation.
‘Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and – and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to – dissolve our marriage,’ Gerry told host Juju Chang.
In divorce papers obtained by TMZ and filed by Turner in his hometown of Petersburg, Indiana, the star cites an ‘irretrievable breakdown’ of the marriage as the reason for the split.
In their interview Turner admitted that their decision to separate was motivated in large part by their ‘dedication’ to their respective families – hinting that this has made it incredibly difficult for them to decide on a place to settle down together.
Both Gerry, a retired restauranteur from Indiana, and Theresa, a securities professional from New Jersey, have kids from past relationships; he has two daughters and two granddaughters, while she has a son, daughter, and six grandsons.
‘The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, it’s been how dedicated both of us are to our families,’ Gerry explained.
‘So we look at these situations and I think we just feel like it’s best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.’
However, Theresa insisted that the former couple tried their utmost to reach a compromise that would work for both of their families, revealing that they had looked at different locations across the country in the hopes of finding a ideal home to start their new lives together.
‘We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at home after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,’ she said.
‘We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched The Golden Bachelor, and I don’t think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,’ Theresa added. ‘We want none of that to change for anybody.’
When asked if they ‘fell out of love,’ Gerry insisted, ‘No. I still love this person. There’s no doubt in my mind, I am still in love with her and still root for her every day.’
They added that they were going to have to ‘give their rings back,’ but that they were happy they could keep ‘the memories’ that they shared.
The couple met on the first season of the Golden Bachelor, which premiered late last year, and Gerry proposed during the show’s finale.
They then tied the knot in January during a televised wedding, with Theresa gushing in her vows, ‘I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you’re sad, to laugh with you when you’re happy, and just stick with you throughout it all.’
In an interview with GMA after the wedding, they insisted that they had ‘found their person.’
Gerry and Theresa’s shock announcement comes just days after it was revealed the pair were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials.
Furthermore, TMZ reported that the married couple were actually residing in separate states – with Gerry living at his $637,000 lake house in Northern Indiana, while Theresa remained in her house in her $568,000 New Jersey home, where she’d been living with her family.
‘The problem is, Theresa can’t just pick up and leave her job, and she has family in New Jersey,’ a source told Life & Style recently. ‘Initially, they thought Gerry could move in with her but that didn’t happen.’
Back in December 2023, Gerry admitted that finding a place to live was ‘a big problem’ for them.
At the time, he told People that they were planning to buy a house in Charleston, South Carolina, together – but it seems that never happened.
‘All of a sudden it’s like, there’s a big problem that is gone,’ he said at the time. ‘The issue of compromising on where to live and how to reconcile families and all of that is, it’s no longer an issue.’
Gerry pulled on the hearts of millions when he appeared on the show, as he was presented as a loving retired restaurateur who had not had a single date since his wife of 45 years, Toni, suddenly passed away from an infection in 2017.
But an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter released after the finale quickly shattered that reputation.
The publication reported that he had a professional and personal history that did not match with the persona of a grieving man who hadn’t gone on a first date in decades.
Instead, it claimed that he had a secret past that included a three-year relationship after the death of his wife and various blue-collar jobs.
He reportedly dated a woman named Carolyn, who is 14 years his junior and claimed he dumped her because she gained 10 pounds.
In addition, his LinkedIn profile showed that he had not owned a restaurant since 1985, when he sold his Mr Quick hamburger franchise in Iowa, where had worked his way up since high school.
