Breakups
Theresa Nist Shares New Details About Gerry Turner Split After His Shock Cancer Reveal
Theresa Nist is opening up about her side of the story after ex-husband Gerry Turner said his bone marrow cancer diagnosis played a factor in their divorce. The exes don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on why their marriage came to an end.
The 71-year-old New Jersey resident shared when she first became privy to the shocking information. “It was when I visited Gerry in Indiana [sometime in March],” she told PEOPLE. “That’s devastating news, really. I was extremely upset.” She added, “He told me, though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive.”
The Golden Bachelor lead is 72 years old and announced that he had been diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer, otherwise known as Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. Turner and Nist were still married when Turner learned the news, but they didn’t stay together for long afterward.
For Turner, the decision to divorce was a logical conclusion. After his diagnosis, he wanted “to continue on as normal as possible.” That included prioritizing his family in Indiana, where he still resides, instead of Charleston, where he planned to most with Nist. “The importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority,” he said.
However, Nist had a completely different point of view. She stressed his diagnosis “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.”
The Golden Bachelor winner further divulged, “If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know. But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship. Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”
Nist did have words of support for her ex-husband. “I wish him the best and that I know that he was in a very difficult situation and that good things will come to him,” she said. “And I wish for him a long and healthy, prosperous life, and I hope that he finds his person. I want him to be so happy, and I just wish him all the best of everything in the world.”
But when looking back at the events of 2024, she expressed, “Sometimes I just can’t believe that I got married and divorced this year.” She stated, “How did that happen? How did this all happen? So much happened to me, both good and bad, but I never like to regret anything.”
For Nist, her divorce was a life lesson. She’s learned that happiness is “not having what you want but wanting what you already have.”
