Putting herself out there — kind of. Katie Thurston revealed that she joined Raya after her split from John Hersey, but she’s not quite ready for romance.
“Have you guys heard of the dating app Raya?” the season 17 Bachelorette, 31, began in a TikTok video posted on Tuesday, July 26. “It’s supposed to be, like, an elite dating app that you have to, like, apply to and get approved for and blah blah blah.”
The Washington native thought she would have to wait a while for approval, so she decided to apply anyway even though she just got out of a relationship. “I was like, ‘I’ll apply now, and then six months from now I’ll start dating.’ Well, they approved me right away. Wasn’t ready, but that’s fine.”
The Bachelor alum decided to use the app for finding friends instead, but that also didn’t work out the way she planned. “I matched with someone and we’re talking,” she recalled. “And then I get unmatched. Just for friends!” In her caption for the post, she quipped: “I joined Raya and can’t even make a friend.”
Last month, the former bank marketing manager and Hersey, 28, confirmed they split after less than one year of dating. “Statement: No, we aren’t together,” Thurston wrote via Instagram in June.
The bartender later elaborated in his own Instagram post, telling followers that he loved being able to share “special moments” with them. “I don’t know if it will ever get easier to share the sad ones. As Katie stated earlier, we are no longer dating,” he continued. “This decision was not made lightly, and it was obviously not an easy one to make.”
Hersey and Thurston went public with their romance in November 2021. The reality star previously sent him home during week two of her Bachelorette season, which aired earlier that year. In the August 2021 season finale, she got engaged to Blake Moynes, but Thurston and the Canada native, 31, announced their split less than three months later.
The wildlife manager later accused his ex-fiancée of emotionally cheating on him with Hersey, but Thurston denied that accusation.
“We both knew our relationship was not working out,” she said during a November 2021 appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe‘s “Off the Vine” podcast. “My relationship with Blake was a very separate situation [from] my relationship with John. There was not overlap. There was nothing but respect. It’s just two different situations.”
