Gerry Turner recently reminisced about the moment he found out that his late wife, Toni, “didn’t want anyone” to know about her health diagnosis.
The 74-year-old television personality published his new book, Golden Years: What I Learned from Love, Loss, on November 4, 2025.
In the book, Gerry revealed that his wife Toni succumbed to a bacterial infection in 2017 and that after his death that summer, he ‘searched through’ her belongings and found ‘evidence that she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes’.
He wrote: “Hidden in the back of a bathroom drawer, in a clear sign that she didn’t want anyone to discover what was in there, I found evidence that she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.”
“There was literature, prescriptions, a blood glucose meter and other supplies – all seemingly untouched and unused. She had never mentioned this major diagnosis to me or her daughters, and as far as I could tell, she had never continued treatment,” The golden bachelor star detailed.
Notably, the discovery raised numerous questions in his mind and left him with “what-if” questions.
“Untreated or unmanaged diabetes puts a strain on the body, especially the kidneys. Had Toni had the tools to live longer, but was ultimately defeated by the belief that any nagging was frivolous? Had I contributed to this mentality in some way? Why had she not felt comfortable confiding in me something as important as having diabetes? The loss of a loved one is sad. But to think that it might have been possible, however remote, that she could have lived longer or was still alive is even more painful,” he explained.
Gerry admitted that the “saddest thing” about Toni’s death is that she “didn’t feel safe enough to tell anyone the truth about what happened to her.”
