"The Golden Bachelor" star Gerry Turner recently opened up about his health setback which he faced earlier this year.
In an interview with People magazine on Wednesday, Turner revealed he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in March. He added that the diagnosis played a significant role in his decision to divorce Theresa Nist.
"There's a topic that I haven't wanted to talk about until now," Turner 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."
He added, "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."
Turner's bone marrow cancer is termed Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, this "is a type of cancer that begins in the white blood cells. Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia is considered a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It's sometimes called lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma."
Turner told People magazine: "Unfortunately, there's no cure for it... So that weighs heavily in every decision I make. 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."
After receiving his diagnosis, Turner decided to tell Nist "what I knew, and I explained the situation to her."
"Certainly, it was hard for me," Turner said. "But the conversation was brief, and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable."
He continued, "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. And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority."
During the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist got engaged in the finale, which aired in November 2023. Their love story continued with a live televised wedding special in January 2024, where they got married.
However, just three months into their marriage, the couple announced their decision to divorce during a joint interview on Good Morning America, which aired on April 12, 2024—the same day Turner filed for divorce.
Speaking of the diagnosis, Nist told People, "He told me though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive."
She continued, "He's a very positive person and I am too, and I know that he will do the best that he can to make this a positive experience. And I have every faith that is going to work out that way, that it's going to be the type of cancer that will not affect his life and that he'll live to be a very healthy old age."
