'The Golden Bachelor' star Gerry Turner says he has bone marrow cancer

Gerry Turner from 'The Golden Bachelor' says he has bone marrow cancer. (John Fleenor / Disney / ABC / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Gerry Turner, star of the inaugural season of ABC’s senior dating show “The Golden Bachelor,” says he has been diagnosed with cancer.

Turner told People magazine in an interview published on Wednesday that he has a type of bone marrow cancer called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia in March. Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia is a slow-growing type of cancer that begins in the white blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it,” Turner said. “So that weighs heavily in every decision I make.”

The 72-year-old restaurateur said the diagnosis is among the reasons why he and Theresa Nist’s marriage, which was the subject of a television special, ended after three months earlier this year.

Turner said he learned of his diagnosis just as he and Nist, 71, “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.”

His desire to “continue on as normal as possible” meant spending more time with his family. As a result, finding a way forward with Nist “became less of a priority.”

The former couple got engaged on the November 2023 season finale of “The Golden Bachelor,” wed in January and announced their marriage was ending in April.

.Turner said he hopes that sharing this news about his health can clear up some of the confusion surrounding their decision to get divorce.

Turner called his time with Nist a “cherished memory” and “wonderful.”

“I certainly wish it would’ve had a different ending, that we would’ve found our way, that we would’ve found solutions to a problem,” he added. “And most of all, that I would not have had a diagnosis that so strongly influenced my decisions and the direction I went.”