Gerry Turner, the star of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor, has revealed he was diagnosed with cancer.
The reality TV star said the diagnosis came earlier this year after marrying Theresa Nist on a live ABC special in January and divorced three months later.
“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,” Turner said in an interview with People.
Turner was diagnosed with cancer after going to the doctor for a shoulder injury.
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“Finally I got around to going [to the doctor] and the orthopedic surgeon said, ‘Yeah Gerry, there’s not much we can do for your shoulder, but there are some unusual blood markers here,’” he said. “And so an orthopedic surgeon went to my family doctor, my family doctor referred me to an oncologist, and now I’m working with a hematology-oncology group in Fort Wayne.”
Turner said he was diagnosed with a bone-marrow cancer, adding, “Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make. 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.”
The Golden Bachelor shared the news with his wife in February and his diagnosis was clearer the next month.
“Certainly, it was hard for me. But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable,” he said. “I wanted my life to continue on as normal as possible, and that led me to believing that as normal as possible more meant spending time with my family, my two daughters, my two son-in-laws, my granddaughters. And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
“That glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time was really a cherished memory. It was wonderful, and 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. And most of all, that I would not have had a diagnosis that so strongly influenced my decisions and the direction I went.”