Katie Thurston is recalling that moment she saw ex Blake Moynes on the beach of Bachelor in Paradise — and it wasn’t what she expected.
The former Bachelorette, 32, is set to make a surprise appearance during season 9 of the reality show and thought she would be greeted with open arms from her fellow contestants when she walked down the steps of paradise. But that wasn’t the case.
“I was told when I was going to see everybody, everyone was going to be very excited and get up and hug me,” she said during the “Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous” podcast on Monday, October 9. “And so I went in with this like mentality of like ‘I’m about to be so welcomed.’”
She continued: “When I walked down, obviously the first person I look for is Blake, and he’s looking at me like he saw a ghost. And it feels like five minutes of nobody saying anything, no one’s getting up. Like, I feel so uncomfortable.”
Katie teased her reunion with Blake, 33 — and appearance on the show — exclusively to Us Weekly earlier this month.
“I was very nervous over everything else just to see Blake. … You have to tune in and find out [where we stand now]. I did recently share though [that] I forgot to stop sharing my Uber rides with him. For the past two years, he’s been getting the notifications, so we’re at least on talking terms,” she said. “And I found that out and have since turned that off.”
Katie and Blake called it quits in October 2021 after she gave him her final rose during the season 17 finale of the Bachelorette, which aired three months earlier.
“We lived in different countries during the pandemic. I think we were just already up against a lot,” Katie explained to Us. “So you just got to find someone who’s willing to put in the work. And that’s not even to him or myself. It’s just in general, long-distance is hard and maybe not the right choice for someone like me who really wants a hands-on, in-person relationship.”
Bachelor in Paradise was the first time the pair had been reunited since their split, she said during an Instagram Q&A with her followers in August.
“First time seeing/speaking [to Blake] since we split 1.5 years ago,” she wrote at the time, on top of a black and white photo of Blake holding a cat. “Can’t say much more for now.”
Earlier that month, the trailer for season 9 of the show revealed Katie was headed to Paradise.
“I don’t think Blake’s going to be happy that I’m here,” she said in the teaser, which panned to an unhappy-looking Blake turning away from his ex.
One month after they split, Us confirmed that Katie was dating John Hershey, whom she sent home during week two of her season. The pair ended their relationship less than 1 year later.
Her biggest takeaway from their failed romance, she told Us, was “don’t hard launch too early.”
“When you’re in such a public spotlight, I think you do have to keep things a little closer to your heart and private and protected, maybe, longer because as fun as it is to be public in the happy moments, it’s really hard to go through a public breakup,” she said.
Blake, for his part, was allegedly “blindsided” by Katie’s romance with John — and even accused her of emotional cheating.
“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. I feel stupid and foolish for allowing it to happen, to some degree,” he said during an episode of the “Talking It Out With Bachelor Nation” podcast in November 2021.
Bachelor in Paradise airs on ABC Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET after the Golden Bachelor.
