Theresa Nist speaks out after ex Gerry Turner shares cancer diagnosis

Originally appeared on E! Online

Theresa Nist will always have love for Gerry Turner.

After the inaugural Golden Bachelor shared he had been diagnosed with an incurable type of blood cancer earlier this year, she recalled her reaction to learning the heartbreaking news one month before their split in April.

“It was when I visited Gerry in Indiana,” Theresa told People in an interview published Dec. 11, noting the visit occurred in March. “That’s devastating news, really. I was extremely upset.”

She added of his diagnosis with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, which is a rare slow-growing type of blood cancer, “He told me that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive.”

And when it comes to how she anticipates Turner navigating the scary diagnosis, the 71-year-old similarly had hopes for the future.

“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 added. “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.”

READ Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner Shares He Was Diagnosed With Incurable Cancer Before Theresa Nist Split

Nist’s comments come the same day Turner shared his health news with the world, during which time he was candid in how the diagnosis affected his marriage to Theresa, whom he met on The Golden Bachelor and then wed in a live ceremony in January.

“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,” he told People in his respective interview with the outlet, “I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer.”

While he originally told Nist he’d been diagnosed with a blood disorder—which is what medical staff originally thought—it was weeks after receiving his diagnosis with cancer that Turner broke the news to his then-wife.

“Certainly, it was hard for me,” he remembered of the conversation. “But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable.”

And it was within reassessing his priorities and navigating his new normal that his relationship with Nist began to further fray.

“I wanted my life to continue on as normal as possible,” Turner explained. “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.”

He continued. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”

The 72-year-old, in part, shared his health news in the hopes that it would alleviate any lingering questions or scrutiny about his and Theresa’s breakup.

“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 said. “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.”

He continued, “Hopefully they’ll look at things a little bit differently, that maybe it wasn’t quite a rash, fast decision that people thought. That there was something else going on.”

And in the meantime, Turner is looking to the future with a positive outlook.

“I’m going to pack as much fun as I possibly can into my life and enjoy every moment,” he noted. “And when I’m gone, I’m gone, but I’m not going to have regrets.”