The former Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner is opening up about his divorce from Theresa Nist and the personal challenges that followed, including a life-changing diagnosis.

Speaking from his home in Indiana, the Golden Bachelor alum, 72, joins PEOPLE over Zoom. Turner is ready to share, for the first time, new details about his unexpected split from Nist, 71.

Turner and Nist captured hearts on the debut season of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor, resulting in a romantic engagement during the finale in November 2023. Just a few months later, in January 2024, they exchanged vows during a televised wedding special.

However, after only three months of marriage, the couple announced their decision to divorce.

 

Turner, who lives in Indiana, and Nist, who lives in New Jersey, said the long distance made their marriage difficult. They couldn’t agree on where to live, as both were committed to staying near their families.

Turner also revealed that he injured his shoulder three years ago when he was knocked over during a pickleball class. He didn’t have time to see an orthopedic surgeon, and when The Golden Bachelor opportunity came along, his schedule only got busier.

“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.”

Turner revealed that he has been diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, this rare disease turns white blood cells into cancer cells, which then accumulate in the bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside the bones responsible for producing blood cells.

After informing Nist about his blood disorder in February, Turner underwent further testing, including a bone marrow biopsy. A few weeks later, his diagnosis was confirmed. By mid-March, he decided to share everything he knew and explained the situation to her.

“Certainly, it was hard for me,” he says 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 believing that as normal as possible more meant spending time with my family, my two daughters, my two son-in-laws, my granddaughters,” he said. “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.”

Turner says he refuses to turn down new opportunities and has embraced Tim McGraw’s Live Like You Were Dying as his guiding 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,” Turned added.