Washington [US], December 12 : 'The Golden Bachelor' star Gerry Turner opened up about his divorce from Theresa Nist and discussed his health battle after he was diagnosed with cancer.
On the inaugural season of 'The Golden Bachelor', Turner and Nist got engaged during the finale episode, which aired in November 2023. A few months later, the two tied the knot during a live televised wedding special in January 2024.
But after just three months of marriage, the newlyweds announced their decision to divorce during a joint interview on Good Morning America, which aired on April 12, 2024, the same day Turner officially filed, reported People.
Turner, who lives three states away from Nist's New Jersey, said at the time that the distance had proved to be a problem and the two couldn't settle on a place to live together. They were both dedicated to their families and unwilling to leave them behind.
"There's a topic that I haven't wanted to talk about until now," he said. "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, " according to People.
"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 revealed.
It was three years ago when Turner got a shoulder injury because someone knocked him over while he was teaching a pickleball class. But he didn't have time to go to an orthopaedic surgeon and when the show came along, his life got busier.
"Finally I got around to going to the doctor and the orthopaedic surgeon said, 'Yeah Gerry, there's not much we can do for your shoulder, but there are some unusual blood markers here,'" he recalls. "And so an orthopaedic surgeon went to my family doctor, my family doctor referred me to an oncologist, and now I'm working with a haematology-oncology group in Fort Wayne."
He also discussed being diagnosed with a slow-growing "bone marrow cancer" with a "really long name" called Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia.
"Unfortunately, there's no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make," he said of the diagnosis. "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."
Discovering his cancer was more of a "process, rather than an event," he shared. The first wave of information he received from his oncologists was that he had a "blood disorder" though he acknowledges he "pretty much" knew it would be cancer, reported People.
In mid-March, he decided to "tell her what I knew and I explained the situation to her."
"Certainly, it was hard for me," he said of revealing his diagnosis to his then-wife. "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 believe that as normal as possible more meant spending time with my family, my two daughters, my two sons-in-law, my granddaughters," he explained. "And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority."
Despite his diagnosis, Turner said he has no plans to say "no to anything" and has adopted Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" as his new philosophy.
"I'm going to pack as much fun as I possibly can into my life and enjoy every moment. And when I'm gone, I'm gone, but I'm not going to have regrets," he shared, reported People.