The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner reveals how his cancer diagnosis led to divorce from Theresa Nist

The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner is ready to shed some light on his sudden divorce from Theresa Nist — and the cancer diagnosis that prompted it.

The inaugural season of the ABC reality show ended with Nist, a 71-year-old financial advisor, earning a proposal from the senior bachelor, a 72-year-old widower. After the Nov. 30 finale, the senior sweethearts tied the knot in a dazzling televised ceremony in January. Three months later, fans were shocked when the couple announced their divorce. Now, Turner is offering some context about the life-changing revelation that led to their split.

"There's a topic that I haven't wanted to talk about until now," Turner told PEOPLE in a new interview. "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."

He then explained, "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."

Turner shared that three years ago, he injured his shoulder while teaching a pickleball class but didn't immediately visit to an orthopedic surgeon. Since life became especially busy thanks to his involvement in The Golden Bachelor, it wasn't until after the show that he made it to a doctor, who referred him to an oncologist after noticing some "unusual blood markers."

There, Turner was diagnosed with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, a slow-growing bone marrow cancer. Per the Mayo Clinic, the disease changes white blood cells into cancer cells that can build up in the bone marrow.

"Unfortunately, there's no cure for it. So that weighs heavily in every decision I make," Turner shared. "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."

Turner called his diagnosis a "process, rather than an event," explaining that the testing happened in phases. Though he was initially told he had a "blood disorder" — and shared as much with Nist — he noted that he "pretty much" knew it would be cancer. It wasn't until mid-March, when the diagnosis became definitive, that he broke the news to Nist.

"Certainly, it was hard for me," he said, recalling the interaction. "But the conversation was brief and I think [she was] a little bit awestruck by the news. So understandable."

As for their split, which came the following month, 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."

He also pushed back against the "unfair" judgements that the duo have experienced in the wake of announcing their divorce.

"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."

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He added, "Hopefully they'll look at things a little bit differently, that maybe it wasn't quite a rash, fast decision that people thought. That there was something else going on."

After just three months of marriage, the newlyweds announced their mutual decision to "dissolve" their marriage during an April 12 joint interview on Good Morning America. They said the split came after several "heart-to-heart conversations" and that they "looked at home after home," but weren't able to settle on a location, as they both wanted to remain close to their families.

As for where they left things, Turner told PEOPLE that he wishes Nist "all of the good luck in the world."

Of their short-lived romance, he added, "That glamour and starstruck, whirlwind time was really a cherished memory. It was wonderful, and I certainly wish it would've had a different ending, that we would've found our way, that we would've found solutions to a problem. And most of all, that I would not have had a diagnosis that so strongly influenced my decisions and the direction I went."