In an interview with PEOPLE revealed on Wednesday, Turner, 72, revealed he was recognized with bone marrow most cancers shortly earlier than he break up from Nist, 71.

The couple revealed in April 2024 that they had been divorcing simply three months after they tied the knot in a televised particular.

Nist recalled with PEOPLE her response when Turner first shared his analysis along with her.

“It was after I visited Gerry in Indiana [some time in March],” she mentioned. “That is devastating information, actually. I used to be extraordinarily upset.”

“He instructed me, although, that it was the kind of most cancers that he would most probably outlive,” she continued.

“He is a really constructive particular person and I’m too, and I do know that he’ll do the most effective that he can to make this a constructive expertise,” she added. “And I’ve each religion that’s going to work out that approach, that it will be the kind of most cancers that won’t have an effect on his life and that he’ll stay to be a really wholesome outdated age.”

Turner first introduced his analysis on Wednesday, telling PEOPLE that he was recognized with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia.

In line with the Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute, Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia is a uncommon, slow-growing blood cell most cancers “that originates from malignant B-cells” and develops within the bone marrow.

Nist and Turner met and fell for one another throughout Season 1 of The Golden Bachelor. The newlyweds then mentioned, “I Do” in a televised marriage ceremony ceremony dubbed The Golden Marriage ceremony on January 4.

Three months later, the 2 introduced they had been headed for divorce throughout an April 12 look on Good Morning America, which additionally marked the day Turner filed for divorce. Nist and Turner blamed the breakdown of their marriage on “geography,” with the previous dwelling in New Jersey and the latter residing in Indiana.

Whereas talking with PEOPLE, Turner mentioned he wished to “proceed on as regular as attainable” following his analysis, together with making his household a precedence.

“The significance of discovering the best way with Theresa was nonetheless there, but it surely grew to become much less of a precedence,” he admitted.

“If you end up hit with that form of information and the shock wears off after a number of days or a number of weeks and also you regroup and also you notice what’s vital to you, that is the place you begin to transfer ahead,” he instructed the outlet. “And I hope that folks perceive on reflection now that that had an enormous bearing on my selections and I believe most likely Theresa’s as properly.”

Nist, in the meantime, mentioned Turner’s most cancers analysis “wasn’t an element within the ending of the connection, at the very least not for me.”

“If that was one thing on his half, perhaps, I do not know. However no, that did not issue into ending the connection,” she added. “A part of it was the gap, however that wasn’t the one half. That is actually all I’ll say.”

Nist mentioned she needs her ex “the most effective” and hopes he has a “lengthy and wholesome, affluent life.” Equally, Turner instructed PEOPLE that he needs Nist “all the good luck on the earth, that she finds the whole lot she desires to.”

“That glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time was actually a cherished reminiscence,” he added, reflecting on their romance. “It was fantastic, and I definitely want it will’ve had a special ending, that we might’ve discovered our approach, that we might’ve discovered options to an issue. And most of all, that I might not have had a analysis that so strongly influenced my selections and the route I went.”