Gerry Turner is speaking up about his divorce from Theresa Nist and a life-altering condition.
The 72-year-old Golden Bachelor alum phones PEOPLE from his home in Indiana via Zoom. Turner, dressed in a suit and tie, is about to provide additional facts about his tragic separation with Nist, 71.
Turner and Nist finished their journey on the first season of the ABC dating program by getting engaged on the last episode, which aired in November 2023. A few months later, the couple married on a live broadcast wedding special in January 2024.
However, after only three months of marriage, the newlyweds announced their divorce during a joint interview on Good Morning America on April 12, 2024, the same day Turner formally filed.
Turner, residing three states away from Nist’s New Jersey, expressed at the time that the distance had become a problem, as they couldn’t reach a consensus on a shared residence. Dedicated to their families, they refused to abandon them.
“There’s a topic that I haven’t wanted to talk about until now,” he tells PEOPLE, explaining how volunteering for various organizations and fundraisers has motivated him to open up. “I believe it’s the right time, particularly because it will likely shed light on the events that transpired in February, March, and April.”
“As Theresa and I were trying very hard to find out our lifestyle, where we were going to live, and how we were going to make our lives work, I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer,” according to him.
Turner injured his shoulder three years ago when someone knocked him over while he was teaching a pickleball session. He didn’t have time to see an orthopedic specialist at the time, and the program added to his workload.
“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,'” recounts his father. “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.”
Turner received a diagnosis of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer” with an incredibly long name. The Mayo Clinic states that the illness transforms white blood cells into cancer cells, which then accumulate in bone marrow, the spongy substance within bones that produces blood cells.
“Unfortunately, there is no treatment for it. Therefore, it significantly influences every decision I make,” he continues, referring to the diagnosis. “It felt like someone had thrown ten tons of concrete on me.” For a while, I refused to accept the situation.
He describes discovering his cancer as a “process, rather than an event.” His doctors told him he had a “blood disorder” at first, but he “pretty much” knew it was cancer.
Turner went in for more tests, including a bone marrow biopsy, a few weeks after telling Nist about his blood disease in February, and his diagnosis became more certain. In mid-March, he decided to “tell her what I knew, and I explained the situation to her.”
He admits that it was difficult for him to inform his then-wife about his condition. However, the conversation was brief, and he believes she was surprised by the news. “Very understandable.”
“I wanted my life to continue as normal as possible, and that led me to believe that normal meant spending more time with my family, my two daughters, my two sons-in-law, and my granddaughters,” he says. “The importance of finding a way with Theresa remained, but it became less of a priority.”
The retired restaurateur stated that the “judgments” made regarding his breakup were “unfair” to the now ex-partners.
“After receiving such news, the initial shock subsides within a few days or weeks, allowing you to refocus and identify your priorities, which is when you begin to progress,” he said. “And I hope that people understand in retrospect that that had a huge bearing on my decisions and probably Theresa’s as well,” he said.
“Hopefully they’ll view things differently and realize that it wasn’t as reckless a choice as many assumed,” he says. He asserts that the fans were experiencing something else.
Despite his diagnosis, Turner claims he has no intention of saying “no to anything” and has embraced Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” as his new motto.
“I’m going to have as much pleasure as possible in my life and cherish every minute. And when I go, I won’t have any regrets,” he says genuinely.
Turner now wishes Nist “all of the good luck in the world, that she finds everything she wants to.”
“That glamorous and starstruck, whirlwind time was really a cherished memory,” he recalls of their brief romance. “It was beautiful, and I wish it had ended differently, that we had found our path, that we had solved a problem. Most importantly, I would not have received a diagnosis that had such a significant impact on my decisions and direction.”