Theresa Nist denies cancer led to divorce from ‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner

Theresa Nist, the winner of the “Golden Bachelor,” is pushing back against her ex-husband Gerry Turner’s assertion that his cancer diagnosis contributed to their divorce, saying his health condition played “zero” role in their split.

The 71-year-old winner of ABC’s inaugural season of the show addressed Turner’s claims during an appearance June 5 on the “Almost Famous Podcast,” hosted by “Bachelor” stars Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti. She expressed surprise at his public statements linking their breakup to his cancer diagnosis.

“I was just so surprised that he even said that I knew about the cancer a long time ago,” Nist said. “The way Gerry presented it to me was that, ‘The doctor said that I’m going to die of old age before this cancer gets to me.’ He bluffed it off, like it really wasn’t that important, and he had no symptoms, and he still doesn’t.”

Turner, 73, revealed in December that he was diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing bone marrow cancer, in February 2024, just weeks after the couple’s televised wedding in January. He told People magazine that the diagnosis had “a huge bearing” on their decision to divorce by April 2024.

Nist firmly denied that Turner’s health influenced her decision to end their marriage.

“We never had a conversation that said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re sick. I can’t stay with you now. I have to leave.’ That never happened,” she said on the podcast. “I would have never left my husband over an illness.”

Nist, who stayed with her first husband through hospice care until his death in 2014 after 42 years of marriage, said Turner’s public comments sparked “absolutely horrible” backlash against her. She suggested Turner may have been seeking public sympathy from fans.

“Did he want empathy from the public?” she questioned. “I was angry that he would say something like that.”

The couple’s whirlwind romance began on the 2023 dating show, leading to an engagement and a live televised wedding on ABC in January 2024. Their marriage lasted just three months before they announced their divorce, which was finalized in June 2024.

At the time of their split, both cited difficulty agreeing on where to live as the primary reason for their divorce. Turner lived in Indiana, while Nist was based on the East Coast.

Nist revealed that if the decision had been up to her, she would have stayed in the relationship longer.

“He wanted to do it right away,” she recalled about making their divorce announcement. “I mean, we had already made the decision. He wanted to make the announcement right away.”

The former couple have maintained distance since their divorce, though Nist said Turner “really does want to talk to me a lot” and wants to preserve their friendship. She said she has not reciprocated those efforts.

Both have moved on to new relationships. Nist is dating someone she met on a dating app, while Turner is in a relationship with a retired teacher named Lana who contacted him through Facebook.

“I really am happy for him,” Nist said. “So I think it worked out the way it was supposed to work out.”