The Bachelorette star Katie Thurston is dating one of her Season 17 bachelors, John Hersey, following her recent split from her season’s winner, Blake Moynes.
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To celebrate the upcoming holidays as well as the re-release of Taylor Swift’s “Red” album, Katie posted “12 Days of Messy” via Instagram Stories over the last two weeks in which she matched one of her The Bachelorette suitors with a song from Taylor’s album every day.
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On Tuesday, November 23, the 30-year-old former bank marketing manager from Washington dedicated Taylor’s “Begin Again” tune to John, a 27-year-old bartender from Pacific Beach, CA, on the final day of her “12 Days of Messy” challenge.
Lyrics of “Begin Again” include, “I’ve been spending the last eight months / thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end / But on a Wednesday in a cafe, I watched it begin again.”
Katie flashed those specific lyrics across a video of John and herself riding in a small plane together. She also showed a clip of a fancy cocktail she was sipping on while John was working behind the bar.
In addition, Katie shared a video of John’s The Bachelorette entrance.
“Yeah, that’s my type,” Katie told the cameras after John introduced himself on Night 1 during The Bachelorette’s June premiere.
“I think that’s my type. Did he hear me? Play it cool.”
Us Weekly subsequently confirmed that Katie and John are dating and she used her ”12 Days of Messy” challenge to announce her new romance.
Katie had also previously hinted that Taylor was going to help her “deliver a message” to “someone from my season,” suggesting she still had feelings or wanted to reconcile with one guy.
Katie and John now reportedly plan to attend a First Noelle Ball on December 2, 2021 together.
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Speculation Katie and John are dating have swirled for quite some time now, even though Katie had been engaged to Blake — whom she dated for about six months — prior to the big announcement of their split in late October.
This past summer, Katie posted footage of herself at a bar John works at in San Diego, which prompted rumors John may have been the winner of her The Bachelorette season.
However, The Bachelorette viewers saw Katie eliminate John during Week 2 of the process and eventually accept a marriage proposal from Blake on the Season 17 finale, which filmed in April and aired in August.
(Katie dedicated Day 1 of her “Messy” challenge to Blake by choosing “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” as his dedication).
Katie proceeded to move to San Diego and continue hanging out with John while Blake — a wildlife manager who lives in Toronto, Canada — traveled to Africa to pursue his wildlife conservation efforts.
Katie and Blake attempted to make a long-distance relationship work as people simultaneously questioned if sparks were flying between Katie and John.
“Internet rumors lead me to this guy becoming a dear dear friend,” Katie reportedly wrote on Instagram in September after enjoying a day out with John in California.
While Katie was trying to mend her broken heart in late October, she uploaded a photo of John’s dog to her Instagram Story and wrote, “Dexter forcing me out of the house this morning.”
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It didn’t take long for many of Katie’s followers to begin shipping Katie and John as a couple.
“Hope you’re more than friends now!!!” one Instagram user wrote on Katie’s September photo featuring John, according to Us.
And another person teased it “won’t be long” until Katie and John’s friendship takes a romantic direction and they start dating.
Katie had addressed the John dating rumors in early November but danced around an official confirmation or denial.
At the time, Katie shared a throwback video of “the first time I saw John since filming” on her Instagram Story that showed Polaroid photos of the supposed close pals playing cards together, Us reported.
“Y’all getting wild in my DMs,” Katie wrote along with a laughing emoticon on November 7.
A source told Us earlier this month that Katie has found “clarity” and now “knows what she wants in a husband” after her failed engagement to Blake.
However, Katie reportedly claimed she wasn’t looking to rush into a new relationship right away.
“She’s still hopeful on finding love but wants to make sure her head is in the right space,” the source said.
“Right now, she’s just figuring out what she wants to do in life. In her mind, her future was with Blake, so now she just has to start fresh and figure out her next steps.”
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Blake has yet to publicly respond to Katie and John’s relationship, but he recently admitted his breakup with Katie “hasn’t been easy.”
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Katie previously hinted on social media that she and Blake were fighting too much during their six-month relationship and broke up due to their different communication styles.
She suggested that Blake was unable to make her happy and vice versa.
An insider told The Sun, however, that Katie’s “outbursts eventually became too much” for Blake “to handle.”
On November 1, Blake shared on Instagram how he had been relying on family, friends and his dogs to get him through his breakup with Katie.
“When times are really tough and things just aren’t going the way you had hoped… it’s always the same ‘gang’ that gets ya back on your feet,” Blake wrote at the time. “Feels good to start getting back into the swing of things.”
Blake is now rumored to be up for consideration to star on The Bachelor’s 27th season.
Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone reported late last month that The Bachelor will be airing two seasons of the show, Season 26 — starring Michelle Young’s The Bachelorette suitor Clayton Echard — and Season 27 in 2022.
According to the @Deuxmoi Instagram gossip account, ABC is considering Blake as the leading man for Season 27 due to his “really big personality” and similar The Bachelor franchise storyline to Nick Viall.
The Bachelor’s 27th season is expected to begin filming in February 2022 and premiere in Spring 2022.
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.