In an interview with PEOPLE printed 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 prognosis along with her.

“It was once 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 individual and I’m too, and I do know that he’ll do the perfect 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 may 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 previous age.”

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

In accordance 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 doable” following his prognosis, together with making his household a precedence.

“The significance of discovering the best way with Theresa was nonetheless there, however it turned much less of a precedence,” he admitted.

“If you find yourself hit with that type of information and the shock wears off after just a few days or just a few weeks and also you regroup and also you notice what’s necessary to you, that is the place you begin to transfer ahead,” he instructed the outlet. “And I hope that individuals perceive looking back now that that had an enormous bearing on my selections and I believe most likely Theresa’s as effectively.”

Nist, in the meantime, mentioned Turner’s most cancers prognosis “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, possibly, 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 perfect” and hopes he has a “lengthy and wholesome, affluent life.” Equally, Turner instructed PEOPLE that he needs Nist “all the good luck on this planet, 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 could’ve had a unique ending, that we’d’ve discovered our approach, that we’d’ve discovered options to an issue. And most of all, that I’d not have had a prognosis that so strongly influenced my selections and the path I went.”