Gerry Turner Says Ex Wife Theresa’s Reaction to His Cancer Diagnosis Made Him Feel ‘Insignificant,’ Claims ‘She Never Called’ to Check in

Gerry Turner is reflecting on receiving a cancer diagnosis while in the midst of his public split from ex Theresa Nist.

After meeting on the debut season of The Golden Bachelor in August 2023, Turner, 74, and Nist, 72, got engaged, married and divorced within eight months. In his newly released memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned From Love, Loss, and Reality TV, Turner detailed the relationship and the aftermath of their breakup in April 2024, which he claimed landed around the same time he was hit with shocking medical news.

“On April 25, two weeks after we filed for divorce, I called Theresa to tell her about my health journey,” he wrote. “I didn’t have a formal diagnosis yet, but I was most likely looking at some kind of cancer. Because all my good friends already knew the inside scoop, it seemed out of balance for her not to know as well. I don’t remember her response, as Theresa remained pretty quiet on the phone. I do remember that she never called to see what was going on or how I was doing.”

In the following weeks, Turner said former Golden Bachelor contestants Kathy Swarts and Susan Nolan frequently checked in, which made him even more aware of Nist’s alleged silence.

“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 shared. “We no longer talk; we have no reason to.”

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Nist addressed Turner’s claims hours after his book launched on Nov. 4, during an appearance on the Dear Shandy podcast, alleging that his timeline was not accurate. “I knew about his cancer diagnosis a long time ago,” she stated. “It wasn’t like he had to call me and tell me.”

“Maybe he called me to give me an update,” she added. “I don’t remember, but I knew about this a long time ago. And he presented it to me this way: ‘My doctor told me that I’m going to die of old age before this cancer will get to me.’ He made it sound like it was nothing, and so far he hasn’t had any symptoms. So it wasn’t as dire as he’s making this out.”

In December 2024, Turner publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed with a slow growing bone marrow cancer called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE. At the time, he said that Nist was aware that oncologists told him he had a “blood disorder” that he “pretty much” knew was cancer in February 2024, but a biopsy confirmed the cancer in mid-March — a month before he and Nist divorced.

In his book, Turner claimed that he didn’t get his biopsy and formal diagnosis until May 2024. He did, however, share Nist’s sentiments that the cancer was “slow growing” and didn’t require treatment until symptoms presented, which hasn’t happened yet and could take years.

“I was in the mode of trying to remove myself from him,” Nist noted on the podcast episode. “I wasn’t thinking I’m not going to call him up and check on him. And so, maybe other women thought that it was more dire than he had presented to me. So, I don’t know what they were doing, but it was just more in the mode of, we’re divorced, and I want you to go live your life. And I didn’t see that he was suffering in any way. I wasn’t trying to be mean.”