Theresa Nist Comments On Gerry Turner's Cancer Diagnosis

Theresa Nist is speaking out about her divorce from Gerry Turner and his battle with cancer.

Turner and Nist became engaged during the finale of the inaugural season of "The Golden Bachelor," which aired in November 2023. Their love story continued with a live televised wedding in January 2024, where they officially tied the knot.

However, after just three months of marriage, the couple announced their decision to divorce during a joint interview on "Good Morning America," which aired on April 12, 2024—the same day Turner filed for divorce.

During the interview, Theresa Nist and Gerry Turner explained that irreconcilable differences regarding their choice of residence ultimately led to their separation.

Gerry Turner Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

On December 11, Gerry Turner revealed that he had been diagnosed with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing bone marrow cancer.

"There's a topic that I haven't wanted to talk about until now," he told PEOPLE Magazine. "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."

"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 added.

According to the Mayo Clinic, this rare disease causes white blood cells to transform into cancer cells, which accumulate in the bone marrow—the spongy tissue inside bones responsible for producing blood cells. "Unfortunately, there's no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make," Turner said. "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."

Theresa Nist Opens Up About Gerry Turner's Cancer Diagnosis

Following Turner's revelation, Nist opened up about the moment she learned that her ex-husband Gerry Turner told her he had cancer, and how it affected their decision to go their separate ways.

"It was when I visited Gerry in Indiana [sometime in March]," Nist told PEOPLE. "That's devastating news, really. I was extremely upset." Despite his diagnosis, she said, "He told me though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive."

"He's a very positive person and I am too, and I know that he will do the best that he can to make this a positive experience," she continued. "And I have every faith that is going to work out that way, that it's going to be the type of cancer that will not affect his life and that he'll live to be a very healthy old age."

Did The Cancer Diagnosis Play A Role In Their Divorce?

While Turner speculated that the diagnosis played a factor in their divorce, Nist says otherwise.

"[It] wasn't a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me," she said. "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."

In the past, Theresa Nist has emphasized that four weeks is "a very short span of time to get to know someone," describing the process as "a very accelerated pace."

"During that four weeks, it's not that you're with that person every day anyway. There were only certain times that I was with him one-on-one," she said at the time.

Theresa Nist Opens Up About The Divorce

Theresa Nist previously revealed that she and Gerry Turner had made the decision to move together to Charleston, South Carolina. "That was the plan. I was selling my home. He was selling his home," she said before making it clear that she "wasn't forcing him to go to South Carolina."

The New Jersey native claimed Turner was "sick" of his lake house in Indiana and was looking for a change of pace. "[But] Gerry, after he got back home, he kind of changed his mind," she told PEOPLE a few months ago. "He said, 'No, let's do it six weeks here and six weeks there.' And I didn't want to do that. I really wanted a home together."

"I wanted the joy of being in a home together and designing a home together," Nist continued. "I really thought that was going to be phenomenal. I was looking forward to that so much."

Theresa Nist And Gerry Turner Went House Hunting Virtually

According to Nist, the couple looked at homes "just virtually." "We never got there, and it never happened," she revealed. "So that would've been a thing to do differently, to actually go to South Carolina and go see things and see them in person instead of just looking at them online because that wasn't enough."

"I think it just petered out that we were looking at homes back and forth and we could never agree on one. And then the emails just stopped, [and] we weren't looking anymore," she continued.