There was extra to the stunning “Golden Bachelor” divorce than met the attention. Gerry Turner, who charmed all ages because the ABC franchise’s elder star, has most cancers and he says that’s what minimize brief his marriage to last rose recipient Theresa Nist.
The 72-year-old revealed to Individuals on Tuesday that early of their marriage he was recognized with a uncommon bone marrow most cancers, which influenced their determination to separate. Nist, in a separate interview with the journal, appeared to disagree. (Extra on that later.)
Upon asserting their divorce in April, Turner and Nist mentioned that distance was primarily the wrongdoer. The 2 couldn’t resolve whether or not they need to reside in Turner’s Indiana or Nist’s New Jersey — as a result of they didn’t wish to be separated from their respective households.
The fact star mentioned the most cancers revelation “probably will clear up a lot of mystery” round what occurred in the beginning of the yr.
“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 informed Individuals.
The previous couple, who received engaged in the course of the “Golden Bachelor” finale that aired in November 2023, tied the knot throughout an ABC particular that aired in January. However three months later, the 2 introduced on “Good Morning America” that they had been calling it quits. Turner filed his divorce petition the identical day, ending the short-lived marriage to the monetary companies skilled.
Turner mentioned his prognosis adopted a three-year-old shoulder harm that he sustained whereas educating a pickleball class. However he received busy and didn’t have it correctly checked out till after his run on the fact present. Then his orthopedic surgeon referred him to a different physician after his lab work contained “unusual blood markers” that they initially believed could possibly be brought on by a blood dysfunction.
The fact star mentioned he was then recognized with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing bone marrow most cancers. The Mayo Clinic says it’s a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that happens when white blood cells flip into most cancers cells and construct up within the spongy materials of the marrow.
“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make,” Turner informed Individuals. “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.”
“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 mentioned, including that “the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
He additionally pushed again towards judgments about their cut up that he believes are “unfair” and characterised their abbreviated union as a “cherished memory” that he wished had a special ending.
“I hope that people understand in retrospect now that [the diagnosis] had a huge bearing on my decisions and I think probably Theresa’s as well,” he mentioned. “Hopefully they’ll look at things a little bit differently, that maybe it wasn’t quite a rash, fast decision that people thought. That there was something else going on.”
Nevertheless, Nist, 71, informed Those that her ex-husband’s prognosis “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship.” At the very least not for her.
“If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know. But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship,” she mentioned. “Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”
In the meantime, Turner mentioned that he’s working with a hematology-oncology group in Fort Wayne, Ind., and goes to “pack as much fun” he probably can into his life.
“[W]hen I’m gone, I’m gone, but I’m not going to have regrets,” he informed the journal.
