“He dumped me”: The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston opens up on her breakup with John Hersey

The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston and John Hersey did their best to save their relationship, but after seven months of dating, the two announced their breakup on June 20. Post the split, Katie is now divulging details about her messy relationship, revealing that it was her ex-boyfriend John Hersey who "dumped" her.

On Tuesday, August 23, Katie Thurston opened up about the breakup on Off the Vine, a Bachelor Nation podcast hosted by Kaitlyn Bristowe, and said:

“He dumped me. Technically, we actually broke up twice. The first time no one knew about. … Like a week or two [later], we kind of worked through it and decided to get back together, so I thought we were golden.”

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The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston and John Hersey

Two months after breaking up with John, Katie is now spilling details about why their relationship ended. On the podcast, Katie stated that being in a relationship is not easy and went on to detail the primary reason behind her split with John.

She said that John needed someone to share his passions and "maybe learn surfing" with him. His request irked Katie. She said,

" I jumped out of a f**king plane three times … to join him in his passions. Eight hours of ground school, all these things to partake in his passion and somehow that was completely ignored and now we're focused on surfing."

To prove his importance in her life, Katie even gifted him a van and tried to change herself for John, but nothing could save their relationship. She vented out:

“I bought this man a frickin’ travel van. I let this man quit his job. I was like, ‘Whatever you need me to be, I will be. Which, in hindsight, that's not healthy, that's not good. But it is a little, like, offensive to be like, Damn, I gave you everything, and you're still being like, This isn’t working out."

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Katie Thurston and John Hersey's relationship timeline explored

Katie met John as a contestant on her season of The Bachelorette. He was eliminated in the second week of the reality dating show, but the two reconnected after The Bachelorette wrapped. The two were friends initially before getting into a romantic relationship.

They went public with their budding romance in November, just a month after Katie ended her engagement with season winner Blake Moynes in October 2021, three months after The Bachelorette finale aired.

There were a "lot of public opinions about that situation" but Katie still went ahead with John. But a few months into the relationship, they split up.

Post the breakup, the Washington native admitted she was "in denial at first." She continued,

“It just really caught me off guard and I just really put, like, all my eggs in one basket with this man, and I don’t want to say I regret it because I think every relationship is a lesson, but it was just six months crash and burn.”

Despite the breakup, the 31-year-old The Bachelorette star says that she is now in a good place.