Katie Thurston revealed her budding romance with John Hersey after breaking her engagement to Blake Moynes during her 12 Days of Messy tributes and now, things definitely have gotten messy.
Bachelor Nation is a fickle place and given Katie’s new relationship news, plenty of The Bachelorette viewers took aim, wondering just how much overlap there was between her relationships with Blake Moynes and John Hersey.
There were plenty of clues dropped by Katie that had The Bachelorette fans wondering if she was dating someone else from her season even before she made the big announcement.
After all, while she was still with Blake, Katie was spending time with John “as friends” and now, just four weeks after they made a joint breakup statement, Katie has already moved on. And, she removed the breakup statement that she posted too. Thankfully, Blake didn’t and we can still take a look back at what the former couple had to say.
With Katie Thurston’s dating timeline looking so murky, John Hersey felt the need to speak out and clear the air, making it clear that he and Katie weren’t sneaking around behind Blake’s back no matter how messy it all looked.
John Hersey takes to Reddit to clear the air
After all The Bachelorette rumors flying around about himself and Katie, John Hersey decided to speak out for the “first and likely only time” to address everything that has happened with a lengthy explanation on Reddit.
In it, John claimed that he is “in favor of everyone having their own opinion” but lately, it seems that some of those opinions have clearly bothered him and he wants Bachelor Nation to know the truth, or at least his truth, which is that they were never trying to sneak around or do anything bad to Blake.
In part, he wrote, “There was no wrongdoing prior to the end of their engagement.”
John continued, “Furthermore, I understand that the timeline seems fast and messy. But I urge you to put yourselves in our shoes. Once Katie and I realized there was a romantic connection that we were interested in exploring, we were not starting from scratch; we were building off of the foundation of a close friendship through which, we had already gotten to know each other so well. The speed at which I fell for this incredible, nurturing, and genuinely caring human being was honestly terrifying. I was scared. But every step of the way felt so right.”
John’s lengthy message continued on to explain that he knows the “optics” don’t look good and by optics, he must mean the fact that he and Katie began a romantic relationship right as she broke up with Blake. Not sooner, as many The Bachelorette fans (and Blake’s mom) seem to think.
Even Blake himself was said to be blindsided by how quickly Katie moved on.
Katie Thurston’s 12 Days of Messy got her into some trouble
When Katie Thurston first announced that she would be dedicating Taylor Swift songs to her exes via her 12 Days of Messy posts, The Bachelorette fans knew things would be just that — messy.
What we didn’t know is that it would lead to at least two Bachelor Nation stars unfollowing her.
First, Becca Kufrin turned her back on Katie Thurston after she dedicated Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble to Becca’s boyfriend, Thomas Jacobs.
Becca and Thomas met on Bachelor in Paradise and despite some bumps near the end of the show, the pair has been going strong ever since and have quickly become a Bachelor Nation fan-favorite couple.
After Katie’s song dedication, it was quickly noted that Becca no longer followed Katie.
The same goes for Blake Moynes, who seemed to still be friends with Katie. That is, until her Days 11 and 12 dedication were made and it became clear that she was, in fact, dating John Hersey less than a month before splitting from Blake. Now he no longer follows her on Instagram as well.
Bachelor Nation reacted quickly too, with sleuths trying to piece together Katie’s relationship timeline with John Hersey to see if there has been overlap and whether she was cheating on Blake Moynes. Overall, the 12 Days of Messy posts and the revelation at the end have not been a good look for Katie Thurston.
The Bachelorette airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.