‘Golden Bachelor’ star Gerry Turner gets to 'live like I'm dying' after incurable cancer diagnosis
Gerry Turner gets to "live like I’m dying."
In 2023, the now 74-year-old Indiana widower made history as the first senior star of ABC’s hit dating series "The Golden Bachelor." It was there that he met Theresa Nist, whom he married live on TV in January 2024. The couple announced their split that April. In December of that year, he announced his cancer diagnosis.
Turner was diagnosed with a slow-growing, incurable bone marrow cancer. The reality TV star is now sharing his story in a new memoir titled "Golden Years."
‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ STAR GERRY TURNER ADMITS MARRIAGE TO THERESA NIST WAS A ‘MONUMENTAL MISTAKE’
"I get to live like I’m dying," Turner told Fox News Digital. "I was always the alpha guy, hard-driving in my career, always wanting to work and get ahead and all those things. Now, after my diagnosis, I’m a lot softer. I go slower. I appreciate other people’s efforts — their joy, their sorrow, their grief and so many other things. And this really started, or I guess it really crystallized, when I realized that I had cancer."
People magazine reported Turner has Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, a disease that was discovered after visiting an orthopedic surgeon for a recurring shoulder injury.
Waldenström's macroglobulinemia transforms white blood cells into cancer cells that build up in the bone marrow, Mayo Clinic reported. The disease most commonly occurs in males over age 70.
WATCH: ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ OPENS UP ABOUT HIS CANCER BATTLE, FINDING LOVE AGAIN
"There is a certain amount of gut punch that you get when you hear the word ‘cancer,’" said Turner.
"[But] there’s a bit of reassurance when your doctor says, ‘You know what? You may outlive this disease.’ Because until I have a particular symptom or several symptoms, there’s no treatment. So, I routinely go for my blood tests, and they mark the indicator that tells them what the progression of the Waldenström's macroglobulinemia is taking."
In the book, Turner claimed that Nist didn’t check in like some of the other contestants after his diagnosis was made public.
"I didn’t have any great expectations for Theresa or any of the other women when I shared what was going on with me, but to be that insignificant to someone I had married, albeit briefly, was very painful," he wrote. "We no longer talk; we have no reason to."
Fox News Digital reached out to Nist, 72, for comment. Ahead of the book's publication, she told Us Weekly: "It makes me very sad to think that he felt empty and trapped. I wish he had said something and just ended it. But at least now I understand why he was so hurtful to me so many times. And I will say this. Those in glass houses should not throw stones. I do wish him all the best."
Turner has plenty of reasons to feel hopeful about his future. In October of this year, Turner announced he was engaged to his girlfriend, Lana Sutton. He popped the question 15 months after his divorce from Nist was finalized.
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"Everything feels different," he gushed. "It’s getting close to eight months since I met Lana for the first time. And in eight months, nothing has wiped the smile off my face, nor has it wiped the smile off her face. She has this constant, happy, positive energy. She loves to travel, and she loves to go and do new things. Every now and then, when I get a little hesitant, she goes, ‘Come on, you’re not going to say no to stuff. We’re going to go have a good time.’"
"We enjoy many of the same physical activities — pickleball, biking, walking — all of those things," he said. "And food — we love cooking together. She’ll knock me out of the way to get to dessert first. It’s fun, it’s reassuring, it’s comforting, it’s safe."
Turner, a retired restaurateur, had found love before. He married his high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1974. Their union lasted until Toni died in 2017, six weeks after she retired and fell ill, People magazine reported. Their two daughters later encouraged Turner to join the show.
The Midwesterner said he knew quickly that Sutton was "the one."
"I thought of it a mere month or six weeks in," he recalled. "I kept thinking, ‘Is this the feeling that I always chased and could never find?’ And as time grew, we went from being together on the weekends to being together four days a week, and then five days a week. And then, it was almost like we were constantly together. … I felt confident in saying to myself, ‘This is the right person for me.’"
Turner emphasized that it’s never too late to find love again.
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"My advice is don’t say no to anything," he said. "If you have a friend who asks you to join a golf league, or a bowling league, or a book club, or to go out for coffee, or to go out for dinner, don’t say no to those things. In all likelihood, the person that you might really enjoy meeting will be a friend of the friend, or a relative of a friend. And if you build that network, and you’re constantly out there giving off positive, fun energy, it’s going to come back to you."
"You have to be patient," he continued. "It might take a while, but if you really want to find that person, and your heart is open, and you have humor in your life, and you want to move forward with it, keep hope, and it’ll happen."
WATCH: ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ GERRY TURNER OPENS UP ABOUT SPLIT FROM THERESA NIST
Turner previously told Fox News Digital, "I think there’s a certain resiliency I have" when facing the "dark period" after his divorce.
"I refer to it as my marathon mentality, that you can endure anything for a certain period of time. And then, once that enduring of pain or unhappiness is over, it’s time to pick yourself up, put your big boy pants on and move on with life. And that’s what it was. I just had to shift gears."