The Golden Bachelor alum admitted his relationship with took a back seat while he navigated his cancer diagnosis.
“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,” Gerry, 72, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, December 11. “And the importance of finding the way with Theresa was still there, but it became less of a priority.”
Gerry revealed to the outlet that he was diagnosed with a slow-growing “bone marrow cancer” with a “really long name” called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. Gerry explained that there’s “no cure,” which “weighs heavily in every decision” he makes.
“It was like 10 tons of concrete were just dropped on me,” he said. “And I was a bit in denial for a while, I didn’t want to admit to it.”
While Gerry initially was told by his oncologists that he had a “blood disorder,” he said he “pretty much” knew it was cancer. He disclosed the initial health news to Theresa in February as he received more testing and a bone marrow biopsy.
Gerry said he decided to “tell her what I knew and I explained the situation to her” in March. “Certainly, it was hard for me,” he said. “But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable.”
After Gerry and Theresa announced their divorce, he recalled being hit with “judgements” — which he called “unfair.” (The pair met while filming The Golden Bachelor season 1, which aired in 2023. After Gerry proposed to Theresa, the twosome exchanged vows in January. They announced their plans to divorce in April.)
“When you are hit with that kind of news and the shock wears off after a few days or a few weeks and you regroup and you realize what’s important to you, that’s where you start to move forward,” he said. “And I hope that people understand in retrospect now that that had a huge bearing on my decisions and I think probably Theresa’s as well.”
Theresa, however, denied the idea that his diagnosis impacted their decision to get divorced. She explained to People on Wednesday that his health battle “wasn’t a factor in the ending of the relationship, at least not for me.”
“If that was something on his part, maybe, I don’t know,” she said. “But no, that didn’t factor into ending the relationship. Part of it was the distance, but that wasn’t the only part. That’s really all I will say.”
