The Golden Bachelor contestant Gerry Turner has shared the heartbreaking discovery he made following the passing of his first wife, revealing she had concealed a significant health condition from him and their family.
Turner recounted the sorrowful moment he realized his wife had kept her diagnosis a secret in his new memoir, Golden Years: What I’ve Learned from Love, Loss, and Reality TV.
The 74-year-old published the book after his second marriage and subsequent divorce, events that unfolded during his participation in the ABC senior matchmaking program. During the show, he met Theresa Nist and married her on television in January 2024.
Unfortunately, the marriage ended just a few months later.
In December, Turner disclosed that he had been diagnosed with a slow but incurable form of bone cancer, leading him to reflect on his love life and experiences on and off the show.
Reflecting on the tragic loss of his first marriage in 2017, after his wife Toni succumbed to a bacterial infection, Turner described how he began sorting through his wife’s belongings amidst his grief.
While clearing out the bathroom, he uncovered some unexpected information.
“Tucked away in the back of a bathroom drawer, in a clear sign that she didn’t want anybody to uncover what was in there, I found evidence that she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,” he wrote in Golden Years, according to People.
His wife had not only kept this diagnosis hidden but had also neglected the recommended diabetes treatment.
Turner further explained: “There was literature, prescriptions, a blood glucose meter, and other supplies — all apparently untouched and unused.
“She’d never mentioned this big diagnosis to me or her daughters, and, as far as I could tell, she’d never followed through with treatment.”
This discovery left Turner grappling with various unanswerable questions after Toni’s passing, wondering if he had somehow played a role in her reluctance to disclose her diagnosis or pursue treatment.
He pondered: “Had Toni had the means to live longer, but been undone in the end by the belief that any kind of whining was frivolous? Had I somehow contributed to this mentality? Why hadn’t she felt comfortable confiding in me about something as important as having diabetes?
“The loss of any loved one is sad. But to think it might have been possible, no matter how remotely, for her to have lived longer or still be alive today, is even more painful.”
Turner had two daughters with his high school sweetheart Toni, whom he married in the 1970s. They remained together until her death.
Recalling their life together, Turner expressed that the ‘saddest’ aspect of Toni’s passing was her feeling unsafe to reveal the truth about her health situation.
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