In a recent interview with People, Gerry Turner, the star of “Golden Bachelor,” opened up about his cancer diagnosis, a topic he had previously avoided discussing. The 73-year-old felt it was time to share this information, stating, “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.”
He referred to the period leading up to his decision to divorce his wife, Theresa Nist, after they had both found love on the popular ABC show. Turner explained that while he and Theresa were trying to explore their life together, he received the unfortunate diagnosis of cancer.
“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,” he shared.
From love to loss, Gerry Turner shares how cancer changed his path
Three years ago, while teaching a pickleball class, Turner injured his shoulder but did not seek medical help immediately. It wasn’t until he finally visited an orthopedic surgeon that he learned more about his condition.
“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. This led to a referral to an oncologist, and he is now under the care of a hematology-oncology group in Fort Wayne.
Diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a rare type of bone marrow cancer, Turner noted the seriousness of the disease. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute describes it as a rare blood cell cancer that primarily develops in the bone marrow and can hinder normal blood cell production, potentially resulting in anemia and a compromised immune system.
Turner sadly acknowledged that there is no cure for his condition, sharing, “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.”
Faced with this diagnosis, Turner expressed his desire to spend more quality time with his two daughters and grandchildren, which inevitably meant less time with Nist. “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 sons-in-law, my granddaughters,” he said.
He added that while he still valued his relationship with Theresa, it became a lower priority as he began to reevaluate what was truly important to him after receiving such shocking news. Turner hopes that people will come to understand how his diagnosis influenced his decisions, as well as those of Theresa.
Following their divorce announcement in April, he stated, “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 we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to dissolve our marriage.”
Nist expressed gratitude for the support they received from fans of “The Golden Bachelor,” saying, “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.
We want none of that to change for anybody.” Turner had proposed to Nist during the show’s finale in November 2023, and just two months later, they celebrated a televised wedding. Their divorce was finalized in June.
