Indiana’s ‘Golden Bachelor’ reveals cancer diagnosis
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — “The Golden Bachelor” alum Gerry Turner recently revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer, according to People.
While discussing his divorce from Theresa Nist over a Zoom interview with People, Turner revealed the diagnosis.
On the inaugural season of “The Golden Bachelor,” Turner and Nist got engaged during the final episode, which aired in Nov. 2023. In Jan. 2024, the two got married during a live televised wedding special. On April 12, 2024, just after three months of marriage, the couple announced their decision to divorce during a joint interview on Good Morning America.
Turner said the distance between the two proved to be a problem, and the two couldn’t settle on a place to live. Turner lives in Indiana and Nist lives in New Jersey.
Turner was diagnosed with a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer” called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, the disease changes white blood cells into cancer cells and builds up in the bone marrow, the spongy material inside the bones where blood cells are made.
“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make,” he says of the diagnosis. “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.”
Despite his diagnosis, Turner told People he has no plans to say “no to anything.”