Gerry Turner from The Golden Bachelor has revealed his diagnosis with bone marrow cancer.
In a new interview, the former reality show contestant admitted that he received the news shortly before his divorce from the show’s winner, Theresa Nist.
“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 told People.
Turner said he found out about his condition after suffering a shoulder injury while playing pickleball three years ago.
“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 said. “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 continued: “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.”
Turner’s condition was formally known as Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, which is when white blood cells are transformed into cancer cells, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is also considered a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Although Turner was only originally told he had a “blood disorder,” he explained that he “pretty much” knew it would lead to cancer.
Turner and Nist got married in a televised wedding in January 2024 before announcing during an episode of Good Morning America in April that they were getting divorced. Turner cited the couple’s inability to decide on a location to settle down as the main reason for their separation.
The former Golden Bachelor said he told Nist that he had a blood disorder in February and waited until March when he had a more tangible diagnosis, to “tell her what I knew and I explained the situation to her.”
He explained that their conversation was “brief,” and they parted with her appearing “a little bit awestruck.”
“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,” Turner said. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
He continued: “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. 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.”
