Theresa Nist is hitting back at claims her “Golden Bachelor” marriage tarnished because of Gerry Turner’s cancer diagnosis.
Nist, who appeared in 2023’s inaugural season of the “Bachelor” franchise highlighting elder contestants in their golden years, addressed her ex’s claims that the couple split once Turner found out he had cancer.
Turner, the first “Golden Bachelor,” proposed to and married Nist in a live televised wedding on ABC in January 2024 – but their relationship was over by April 2024, and the couple at the time said a decision of where to settle down contributed to their divorce, which was finalized that June.
Turner, 73, in December revealed his terminal cancer diagnosis of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a bone marrow cancer and type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and suggested their split was connected to his health bombshell.
Nist, 71, at the time denied “a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me,” in an interview with People, and she’s doubling down on her shock at Turner’s claims.
‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner says cancer diagnosis factored into Theresa Nist divorce
“I was just so surprised that he even said that I knew about the cancer a long time ago,” she said on the June 5 episode of the “Almost Famous Podcast” with Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti. “The way Gerry presented it to me was that, ‘The doctor said that I’m going to die of old age before this cancer gets to me.’ He bluffed it off, like it really wasn’t that important, and he had no symptoms, and he still doesn’t.”
‘Golden Bachelor’ breakup bombshell: Look back at Gerry Turner, Theresa Nist’s romance
She added, “I would have never left my husband over an illness.”
While Turner previously told People magazine that his health announcement “probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April” during the couple’s choice to split, Nist denied that their relationship was affected in that way because of Turner’s cancer.
“We never had a conversation that said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re sick. I can’t stay with you now. I have to leave.’ That never happened,” she said on the podcast.
Nist also suggested Turner wanted “empathy” from “Bachelor” fans.
“Did he want empathy from the public?” she questioned. “I was angry that he would say something like that, but then I am such an understanding person, and I can put myself easily in someone else’s shoes. So I tried to see it from his perspective, and I thought, ‘OK, if that’s in his mind, then I guess that’s how he sees it.’ Everyone has their own perception of what happened.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner’s ex slams cancer split claims
