BREAKING NEWSGolden Bachelor's Gerry Turner Diagnosed With Cancer Weeks Before Theresa Nist Split
Golden Bachelor's Gerry Turner revealed he has cancer.
Dec. 11 2024, Published 12:28 p.m. ET
Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner is coming clean about why his romance with Theresa Nist didn't work out.
"There's a topic that I haven't wanted to talk about until now," the star, 72, discussed in a new interview, which was published on Wednesday, December 11. "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."
The pair were married for three months.
"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 continued.
Three years ago, Turner got a shoulder injury when someone knocked him over while he was teaching a pickleball class. He didn't end up seeing a doctor due to being busy filming the ABC show.
"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."
He was later diagnosed with "bone marrow cancer" called Waldenström's macroglobulinemia.
The star revealed his cancer diagnosis in a new interview.
"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."
Turner ended up telling the news to Nist in February, which was a "hard" moment for him.
"But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable," he shared.
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Gerry Turner is still living life to the fullest despite his recent diagnosis.
"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," he explained. "And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority."
Gerry Turner met Theresa Nist on 'The Golden Bachelor.'
As OK! previously reported, rumors swirled as to why their three-month marriage ended so abruptly.
"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 stated. "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."
For now, Turner is living life to the fullest and wishes Nist "all of the good luck in the world."
"That glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time was really a cherished memory," he added. "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."
People spoke to Turner.
