“Golden Bachelor” Star Gerry Turner’s Got a New Girlfriend!

Golden Bachelor fans, we’re here to share some happy news. A few months after revealing that he’d been diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a bone marrow cancer, season one star Gerry Turner has provided fans with an update on his condition — and his love life. And it’s a big one!

On April 15, the retired restaurateur appeared on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast with Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt, where he told the Bachelor Nation alums that, despite the diagnosis, “life is actually pretty good.” He told the podcast host he plays pickleball three times a week for three hours and has been enjoying the spring weather.

“It’s kind of my barometer for health and well-being,” he said of the sport. “There’s a level of tiredness [that] if I hit beyond that, I start to wonder if something’s wrong. If I’m short of that, I wonder if I’m not working hard enough.”

Let’s dig deeper into what else Turner shared about how he’s faring lately.

Gerry Turner’s cancer update

In December, Turner told PEOPLE that he’d been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, and that unfortunately, “there’s no cure for it.” He said that the cancer was found after he’d hurt his shoulder during a game of pickleball. His orthopedic surgeon noticed “some unusual blood markers,” and he was eventually referred to an oncologist and received a bone marrow biopsy.

The good news is that Turner told Amabile and Pitt that he feels great. “Until I have any symptoms, there’s no treatment, so I go frequently for blood tests,” the 73-year-old explained. “I’m on, like, a six-month schedule now, and I feel optimistic because the doctor has said, ‘Well, when you turn 75, we’re going to have to go three-month increments.’ So it’s telling me that at least he expects me to live another couple of years to get to that. But the bottom line is I feel really good.”

He also said that receiving this health news has given him a new perspective. “It’s a privilege to live like you’re dying,” he said. “I don’t turn down anything. I feel like I’m more open to emotions. I’m more open to experiences.”

Who is Gerry Turner dating?

It was at this point in the conversation where the former Golden Bachelor made another revelation — he’s dating again. “The person I’m dating will say, ‘Do you want to go do—’  And before she even gets out the rest of the sentence, I will say yes. So I’m in on everything,” he continued.

He added, “It makes life exciting because you kind of, in the back of your head, feel like you’ve got a lot of living to do and you don’t know how long you have to do it, so don’t turn down anything. And so, in a way, it’s really a good thing.”

A few days later, on April 27, the former Golden Bachelor hard-launched his relationship, posting a series of pictures of him and his new boo on Instagram.

From the tag, we know that he’s dating a woman named Lana Sutton. Read on for more about her.

Who is Lana Sutton, Gerry Turner’s new girlfriend?

Turner told TMZ that he and Sutton met on Facebook — Sutton reached out to him, and at first he ignored her message because, as you can imagine, he’s inundated with requests. Her second message caught his eye, because she mentioned she was also from Indiana — a town about 20 minutes from where Turner is from, in fact.

Sutton is in her mid-50s and is a retired teacher who was also the part-owner of a video production company. Their first date was in March, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since. He’s met her parents, and he mentioned on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast that Sutton “relates well” to his daughters.

How did Theresa Nist react to Gerry Turner’s new relationship?

Lest you think there’s any drama between the exes, on the podcast, Turner mentioned that he told his ex-wife of three months, Golden Bachelor winner Theresa Nist, about his new relationship before the news went public.

Here’s Nist’s recollections about that conversation: “He said, ‘I just wanna let you know I met someone.’ I said, ‘That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you.’ He goes, ‘I was afraid to tell you.’ ‘Why would you be afraid? I only want your happiness.’ If this was the way it happened for him to find his person to go on the show, get married, and then find his person this way, then it was meant to be.”

“He had a lot of love to give,” Nist went on. “I think he dove into this really quickly, but I think it’s a great relationship from what I can tell.”

And she had nothing but kind things to say about Sutton: “She’s phenomenal. They talked about really important things, his cancer. And she is all on board and she’s like, ‘Whatever years I have with you are perfect.’ They’ve talked really long-term.”

And Turner emphasized on the podcast that there’s no bad blood between the ex-spouses. “I really feel like there was a mutual admiration and respect and empathy in both ways that we kind of understood the other person’s situation,” he said of their split. Nist, likewise, wishes him well: “I want him to live a long, healthy, prosperous, wonderful life. I’m rooting for him.”

The post “Golden Bachelor” Star Gerry Turner’s Got a New Girlfriend! appeared first on Katie Couric Media.