“I Felt Betrayed by Reality”: Theresa Nist Opens Up About Gerry Turner’s Cancer and Their Marital Breakup

“I wish him the best,” Nist tells PEOPLE of what she’d like to say to Turner. “And that I know that he was in a very difficult situation and that good things will come to him”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist. Photo: Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty

Theresa Nist is sharing her side of the story.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the Golden Bachelor alum, 71, opens up about the moment her ex-husband Gerry Turner told her he had cancer, and how it affected their decision to go their separate ways.

“It was when I visited Gerry in Indiana [some time in March],” Nist recalls during a Zoom call in her office in New Jersey, where she works as a financial services professional. “That’s devastating news, really. I was extremely upset.”

Despite his diagnosis, she says, “He told me though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive.”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.John & Joseph Photography/Disney via Getty Images

“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 continues. “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.”

On Dec. 11, Turner, 72, exclusively told PEOPLE that he had been diagnosed with a slow growing bone marrow cancer called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, the disease changes white blood cells into cancer cells and builds up in the bone marrow, the spongy material inside the bones where blood cells are made.

Turner and Nist got engaged during the final episode of the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor, which aired in November 2023. A few months later, the two made their love official when they tied the knot during a live televised wedding special in January 2024.

But after just three months of marriage, the newlyweds announced their decision to divorce during a joint interview on Good Morning America, which aired on April 12, 2024 — the same day Turner officially filed. At the time, the two revealed that they couldn’t see eye-to-eye on their place of residence and decided to go their separate ways.

Teresa Nist and Gerry Turner.John Fleenor/Disney via Getty, Ben Hider/ABC via Getty

Turner told PEOPLE that the diagnosis made him want “to continue on as normal as possible” and that included prioritizing his family in Indiana, where Turner resides. “The importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority,” he said.

“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 added. “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.”

When it comes to Nist’s point of view, she tells PEOPLE that Turner’s diagnosis “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.”

“If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know. But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship,” she explains. “Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”

(L) Theresa Nist and Gerry Turner on ‘The Golden Bachelor’.John Fleenor/DISNEY via Getty

As she’s shared in previous interviews, Nist noted that four weeks is a “very short span of time to get to know someone, and it’s a very accelerated pace.”

“During that four weeks, it’s not that you’re with that person every day anyway. There were only certain times that I was with him one-on-one,” she adds.

Nist tells PEOPLE that they decided to move together to Charleston, South Carolina. “That was the plan. I was selling my home. He was selling his home.”

But clarifies although her son lives in the state, “I wasn’t forcing him to go to South Carolina.” According to Nist, Turner had told her he was “sick” of his lake house in Indiana and was looking for a change.

“[But] Gerry, after he got back home, he kind of changed his mind,” she explains. “He said, ‘No, let’s do it six weeks here and six weeks there.’ And I didn’t want to do that. I really wanted a home together. I wanted the joy of being in a home together and designing a home together. I really thought that was going to be phenomenal. I was looking forward to that so much.”

(L) Gerry Turner proposes to Theresa Nist on ‘The Golden Bachelor’.Disney/John Fleenor

She adds, “We looked at homes just virtually. We never got there, and it never happened. So that would’ve been a thing to do differently, to actually go to South Carolina and go see things and see them in person instead of just looking at them online because that wasn’t enough.”

“I think it just petered out that we were looking at homes back and forth and we could never agree on one. And then the emails just stopped, [and] we weren’t looking anymore,” she says.

These days, Turner and Nist seldom talk. “I think some of our girls still talk,” she shares of their daughters.

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist’s Relationship Timeline, from Golden Bachelor to Divorce

With what would have been their first wedding anniversary on the horizon, Nist admits that the occasion is “bittersweet.”

“Sometimes I just can’t believe that I got married and divorced this year,” she sighs but with a smile. “How did that happen? How did this all happen? So much happened to me, both good and bad, but I never like to regret anything.”

“I like to say we all learn lessons from what happens to us,” Nist says, adding that she’s learned that happiness is “not having what you want but wanting what you already have.”

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“I think I really appreciate my life even more than I did before, and I was very appreciative before, but I think I’m more settled and relaxed and not so anxious or upset about anything,” she continues. “Not that I was upset before, but I do really appreciate where I am in life.”

When it comes to a final message she’d like to give Turner, she tells PEOPLE this:

“I wish him the best and that I know that he was in a very difficult situation and that good things will come to him. And I wish for him a long and healthy, prosperous life, and I hope that he finds his person. I want him to be so happy, and I just wish him all the best of everything in the world.”