Katie Thurston is biting the hand that fed her… a decent amount of fame and fortune.
The 31-year old rose to fame as a suitor on The Bachelor and then as the lead on The Bachelorette.
And yet, in the wake of the Love is Blind Season 2 finale, Thurston just hurled some shade at the ABC franchise while heaping praise on the Netflix reality show.
“Oh I’m obsessed with this show genuine connections without the distractions of made-up drama and field games,” Thurston wrote of Love is Blind on Monday, giving this romantic competition a compliment.
At the same time, she clearly took a shot at The Bachelorette.
Unless you somehow think Thurston was NOT talking about this latter program when citing made-up drama and field games…
Both The Bachelorette and Love is Blind chronicle couples who aspire to get married.
Love Is Blind Season 2, for example, featured a number of engagements (including a few viewers didn’t see) that took place before the men and women in question ever saw each other.
The series is truly “blind,” as its title states and promises, keeping participants separate until they accept a proposal.
Of the six pairs at the center on the series, two said “I do” at the end.
Thurston, meanwhile, concluded her run as The Bachelorette with an engagement to Blake Moynes.
The couple broke up in October, however, with Moynes eventually accusing his ex of having an emotional affair, if not an all-out physical one, after Thurston was spotted out a short time later with John Hersey, a suitor Katie had previously sent home.
Hersey and Thurston are still dating.
“I really don’t think there was any physical cheating there, but there [was] clearly emotional [cheating] for it to transition as quickly as it did,” Moynes said late last year on the Talking It Out With Bachelor Nation podcast, adding:
“I feel stupid and foolish for allowing it to happen, to some degree.”
In a lengthy Reddit response back then, Hersey emphasized that there was nothing sordid at play by himself or by Thurston, as he always respected his now girlfriend’s relationship with Moynes.
“The boundaries of our friendship with respect to her ongoing relationship never even required addressing, because it was never a thought in our minds that we would ever be anything more.
“You guys- she was engaged,” Hersey wrote.
He concluded at that time:
“It is apparent that many of you misjudge how both her and I view that commitment.
“Neither Katie nor I would ever cheat, push someone to cheat, or be involved in cheating.
“It is not in our nature. It is not acceptable. It is not okay.”
