Showing support! According to season 12 star JoJo Fletcher, Bachelorettes of past and present came together to support Katie Thurston on finale night.
“I congratulated her on the Bachelorette group chat that we all have,” JoJo, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing her partnership with Mercari. “As a former Bachelorette and knowing what that experience is like — everyone’s going to have an opinion. [Fans] get to see a glimpse of kind of how everything played out and people make their perceptions, but at the end of the day, the fact that she was able to find love and she’s happily engaged to Blake [Moynes], that is something that we all wanted for Katie and [we’re] are excited for her.”
Blake, 31, popped the question during the Monday, August 9, finale after Katie, 30, sent home finalist Justin Glaze. She previously had a heart-wrenching goodbye with Greg Grippo during the August 2 episode.
When asked if she had advice for the new couple, JoJo noted that all the past leads echo the same sentiment — Katie and Blake need to lean “into each other” and not “focus on social media.”
“Don’t focus on people saying negative things because it’s going to happen, but you just gotta trust each other,” the Cash Pad star explained. “Soak up this time together because it is going to be so fun, so exciting to live your life. But also know difficult times come after the show. And so just know that and just continue to work at it every single day. We’re all super excited for her and I’m sure she is just so happy to be done with it. She said that she’s happier and more love than she’s ever been. So that is really, really exciting.”
Katie has been vocal about how helpful cohosts Tayshia Adams (season 16 Bachelorette) and Kaitlyn Bristowe (season 11 Bachelorette) were on her journey. After Monday’s finale, she revealed Desiree Hartsock, whose breakup with finalist Brooks Forester has been heavily compared to Katie and Greg’s split, FaceTimed her in New Mexico to give her “words of advice and encouragement.”
“I can only hope to be lucky as her and Chris are with their ever-growing love and beautiful family,” Katie wrote via Instagram, referring to the season 9 Bachelorette’s husband (and final rose recipient) Chris Siegfried.
JoJo, for her part, got engaged to Jordan Rodgers on the 2016 season of the show. Now, she’s teaming up with Mercari to declutter their Dallas home and to help a lucky winner makeover their own space with a credit to the resale marketplace do the same. (The contest begins on Thursday, August 12).
“Jordan and I have moved every single year since we’ve been together, which naturally things just accumulate,” she told Us. “So partnering with Mercari and National Garage Sale Day, I got to declutter that space, find items in my home that I don’t have a place for anymore, and I can sell them. … We’re doing a fun sweepstakes where people can upload photos of their messy spaces to MercariLocalSweeps.com and there will be a winner who will get $3,500 to put towards reimagining that space. And also I get to help them with a little video consultation to bring that space to life again.”
For more from JoJo, including whether Michelle Young has been added to the Bachelorette group chat, watch the video above.
