‘Golden Bachelor’ Fallout: Theresa Nist Shuts Down Gerry Turner’s Cancer Claims

The Golden Bachelor’s Theresa Nist is firing back at ex-husband Gerry Turner.

The couple met on the first season of Golden Bachelor in 2023, which ended with Turner referring to Nist during the season finale. They tied the knot in a televised ceremony in January 2024 — only to file for divorce a few months later in April.

Turner speculated that — in addition to the distance between their home states and families — his cancer diagnosis played a role in his separation from Nist after being married for just three months. While the pair were trying to figure out how they were “going to make [their] life work,” Turner discovered that he had bone marrow cancer, sharing the news with Nist in February 2024.

“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,” he told PEOPLE in December. “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.”

In a June 5 episode of The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast, Nist addressed Turner’s claim. “In his mind, it factored into his decisions, so he just assumed that it factored into mine when it had nothing to do with it,” she said.

“I would have never left my husband over an illness,” Nist stressed. She noted that she stayed with her late husband, Billy, for years while he was sick.

Nist went on to explain that her relationship with Turner simply didn’t work out, and they didn’t have a conversation about what actually led to their breakup. “It was just, at one point, Gerry said, ‘This isn’t going to work out, is it?’” she recalled.

“I’ve never ever said what the reason is, but right now I decided to start writing about it,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever release it. It might just be for me.”

Nist also brought up Turner’s upcoming memoir as a source of concern, considering that he may “promulgate theories.” “Everyone has their own perception of what happened,” she conceded.

Since their breakup, Turner entered a romance with a woman he met on Facebook, a retired teacher named Lana. They made their relationship Instagram official in April. Nist hinted that she might have a new romance of her own during the podcast episode when asked why she didn’t join the cast of the upcoming Bachelor in Paradise Season 10.

“I think it worked out the way it was supposed to work out,” she said.