The Golden Bachelor winner Theresa Nist is slamming the comments made by her ex-husband Gerry Turner, which suggested that their marriage ended because of his cancer diagnosis.
The former couple got married in January 2024 during a live TV special and then announced their divorce just three months later in April 2024. Gerry then spoke out in December 2024 to reveal his cancer diagnosis.
About how the diagnosis impacted their relationship, he shared, “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.”
Gerry later spoke out to clarify that they didn’t split because of the cancer diagnosis, but now Theresa is reflecting on those comments in a new interview on iHeartRadio’s Almost Famous Podcast with Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti.
“I was just so surprised that he even said that I knew about the cancer a long time ago,” she 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. So 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.”
“I would have never left my husband over an illness,” Theresa added.
If you didn’t know Theresa‘s first husband died in hospice care in 2014 after a 42-year marriage.
Theresa thinks that Gerry may have wanted empathy from the public.
“Did he want empathy from the public?” she said. “I was angry that he would say something like that, but then I am such an understanding person, and I can put myself easily in someone else’s shoes. So I tried to see it from his perspective, and I thought, ‘Okay, if that’s in his mind, then I guess that’s how he sees it.’ Everyone has their own perception of what happened.”
The new star of The Golden Bachelor season two has been announced.
