Gerry Turner is opening up about his divorce from Theresa Nist and a never-before-shared reason he claims he broke up with her.
As Perezcious readers know, after the groundbreaking first season of Golden Bachelor, the couple married in a wedding special this January. But just three months later, they dramatically split, blaming location issues for the quickie divorce. But recently, Theresa claimed this wasn’t the full story — though she refused to reveal more. Well, now, Gerry is opening up himself, and it’ll leave you with a mix of emotions!
Related: Julianne Hough Sparks Dating Rumors With THIS Bachelorette Alum!
In an interview with People on Wednesday, the reality star revealed there’s another thing that strained the romance, sharing:
“There’s a topic that I haven’t wanted to talk about until now. I think it’s time, also because it probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April.”
He shared:
“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.”
Oh, no…
According to Gerry, three years ago, he sustained a shoulder injury when someone knocked him over while he was teaching pickleball. He didn’t have time to go to an orthopedic surgeon at the time, but he eventually got around to it after the show, saying:
“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.’ 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.”
The 72-year-old was diagnosed with a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer” with a “really long name” called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, this disease changes white blood cells into cancer cells, which builds up in the bone marrow. Sadly, there’s no cure, Gerry shared:
“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.”
Oof. How brutally difficult.
He called discovering his cancer diagnosis a “process, rather than an event,” with the first news from his oncologists being that he had a “blood disorder.” That said, he “pretty much” knew he had cancer, but it took time to confirm.
So, how does his wife play into this? Gerry said he told Theresa in February about his blood disorder and he went in for additional testing, including a bone marrow biopsy, weeks later to get a clear diagnosis. In mid-March, he decided to “tell her what I knew and I explained the situation to her.” Hmm. So, she wasn’t much of a confidant for him…
Gerry continued:
“Certainly, it was hard for me. But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable.”
The ABC star acknowledged he didn’t want to lean on his new partner during this challenging time, adding:
“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. And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
Jeez. That says a lot about their relationship. We understand they hadn’t been married for that long, but you’d think this would be a time when someone would find comfort in their partner — not blatantly cut them out!
Gerry went on to hit back at “unfair” “judgments” made about their split, saying:
“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.”
He furthered:
“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.”
With his heartbreaking diagnosis, Terry isn’t going to say “no to anything” and plans to follow Tim McGraw‘s Live Like You Were Dying philosophy, for instance, he’s been getting involved with charities and fundraisers, which inspired him to get candid about his condition. He expressed:
“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.”
He now wishes his ex-wife “all of the good luck in the world, that she finds everything she wants to.” He reflected on their romance:
“That glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time was really a cherished memory. It was wonderful, and I certainly wish it would’ve had a different ending, that we would’ve found our way, that we would’ve found solutions to a problem. And most of all, that I would not have had a diagnosis that so strongly influenced my decisions and the direction I went.”
Our heart goes out to him… but Theresa, on the other hand, is calling BS! While sympathetic to his health issue, she told the outlet that this isn’t the reason they broke up!
According to Us Weekly, Theresa told People that cancer “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.” She reportedly added:
“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.”
So, there’s more to the story! Hmm…
Thoughts?! Sound OFF (below).
Related Posts
