‘Golden Bachelor’ Star Reveals the Health Diagnosis That Led to Shocking Split

Gerry Turner, who starred on The Golden Bachelor in 2023, has shared that he was diagnosed with cancer soon after he married Theresa Nist, another star on the show, and that it had a “huge bearing” on their eventual divorce.

Turner and Nist became engaged on the last episode of the first season of the ABC reality dating show and were married in a January 2024 televised special. They shocked fans, however, when they jointly announced their decision to part ways just three months after the wedding.

While speculation had swirled around what exactly led the one-time love birds to split so quickly, Turner, 72, has now told People that it had a lot to do with being diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer in March this year.

Doctors had noticed that he had unusual blood markers after he got surgery for a pickleball injury. After testing, an oncologist diagnosed him with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, he told People.

The revelation came “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,” Turner said.

He shared the diagnosis with Nist soon after he received it, in mid-March, which he said “was hard” to do.

“But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news,” he said. “So understandable.”

“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 further. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”

“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 added. “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.”

Despite their split, Turner said that he wishes Nist “all of the good luck in the world, that she finds everything she wants to.”

As for what’s ahead, he isn’t planning to let the diagnosis slow him down.

“I’m going to pack as much fun as I possibly can into my life and enjoy every moment,” Turner said. “And when I’m gone, I’m gone, but I’m not going to have regret.”