Gerry Turner: Golden Bachelor reality TV star reveals he has incurable cancer as he splits with wife after diagnosis - is he dating someone new?

The reality star, 73, was diagnosed with a slow-growing bone marrow cancer, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, for which there is no cure. Turner has revealed that he was diagnosed with the incurable cancer weeks before his split from wife Theresa Nist in April.

Turner was married to Nist for three months. He told People: “I think it's time, also because it probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April. As Theresa and I were trying very hard to find our lifestyle and where we were going to live and how we were going to make our life work, I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer.

“Unfortunately, there's no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make. It was like 10 tons of concrete were just dropped on me. And I was a bit in denial for a while, I didn't want to admit to it.”

He said it was “hard” sharing the devastating news with Nist who was “understandably awestruck”. He said this played into their widely publicized comments about deciding to split due to location issues, he lives in Indiana while Nist resides in New Jersey.

Turner said: “I wanted my life to continue on as normal as possible, and that led me to believing that as normal as possible more meant spending time with my family, my two daughters, my two son-in-laws, my granddaughters. And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”

Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia is a type of cancer that begins in the white blood cells per Mayo Clinic. It is considered a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

In Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, some white blood cells undergo changes that turn them into cancer cells. The cancer cells can build up in the bone marrow. The cancer cells crowd healthy blood cells out of the bone marrow. The disease can occur at any age, but it's most often found in adults 70 and older.

Turner said his road to discovering the disease began when he sustained a shoulder injury when he was knocked over during a pickleball game three years ago. When he “finally” visited an orthopaedic surgeon, he was found to have unusual blood markers. He was referred to an oncologist who found he had a “blood disorder” which he said he knew “pretty much” would be cancer.

Nist told People she was “extremely upset” when Turner told her the devastating news during a trip to Indiana in March. She added: “He told me though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive.” She said that Turner's diagnosis “wasn't a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me” and part of the reason was the distance between their Indiana and New Jersey homes.

In an interview with Fox News, Turner confirmed he is now dating a new woman since his divorce from Theresa Nist. Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist finalized their divorce in June. Turner told Fox News Digital his new relationship is "quite refreshing."