Just a few months after Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner tied the knot with Theresa Nist, the pair filed for divorce. Turner has recently opened up about their split with People, along with revealing his recent cancer diagnosis.
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While on the hit ABC dating show The Golden Bachelor, Turner got engaged to Nist. The couple decided to take a trip to the alter a few months later. The wedding took place during January 2024, which was televised for fans to watch.
In April 2024, Turner and Nist made an appearance on Good Morning America for a joint interview. The two then announced that they would be filing for a divorce.
Turner told People that the long distance was causing issues for the couple. While he was settled in Indiana, Nist lived in New Jersey. Both Turner and Nist weren’t ready to move somewhere new and leave their families behind.
“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 out life work,” Turner said. “I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer.”
After a shoulder injury Turner experienced while teaching a pickleball class, the Golden Bachelor decided to hold off on going to see a doctor. Eventually, Turner saw a professional and they found some “unusual blood markers” within his bloodwork.
“Finally I got around to going [to the doctor] and the orthopedic surgeon said, ‘Yeah Gerry, there’s not much we can do for your shoulder, but there are some unusual blood markers here,'” he recalled. “And so an orthopedic surgeon went to my family doctor, my family doctor referred me to an oncologist, and now I’m working with a hematology-oncology group in Fort Wayne.”
Gerry Turner Speaks Openly About Diagnosis
Turner went on to explain that he was eventually diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a slow growing bone marrow cancer.
“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make,” Turner said, alluding to his split. “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.”
The oncologists that Turner met with originally told him that he had a “blood disorder.” Following the news, Turner went through more testing. After extensive testing, including a bone marrow biopsy, doctor’s confirmed the cancer diagnosis.
Turner told Nist about his diagnosis afterwards.
“Certainly, it was hard for me,” he said. “But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable.”
“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,” Turner continued. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
Gerry Turner Discusses What He Wants for His Future
As of now, Turner has decided to make the most of life and has no plans of saying “no to anything.”
“When you are hit with that kind of news and the shock wears off after a few days or a few weeks and you regroup and you realize what’s important to you, that’s where you start to move forward,” he said. “And I hope that people understand in retrospect now that that had a huge bearing on my decisions and I think probably Theresa’s as well.”
“I’m going to pack as much fun as I possibly can into my life and enjoy every moment,” Turner add. “And when I’m gone, I’m gone, but I’m not going to have regrets.”