Supporting her girl. Tayshia Adams thought Katie Thurston sent an important message during her tense reunion with longtime frontrunner Greg Grippo on Monday, August 9.
Katie, 30, and Greg, 28, sat down to unpack their emotional breakup on Monday’s After the Final Rose special — and things quickly got messy. While watching the fiery interaction, Tayshia, who cohosted season 17 of The Bachelorette with Kaitlyn Bristowe, was inspired by the Washington native’s confidence.
“I think even Kaitlyn said something we both noticed the second Katie stepped on stage that there was just a lot of tension. And I think it’s also because at one point, these two people really cared about each other,” the 30-year-old phlebotomist recalled during the Tuesday, August 10, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “But also, I really wanted to commend Katie for sticking up for herself and really just … letting Greg know, like, how his actions affected her.”
When Katie’s journey began, plenty of fans were convinced that Greg was The One after he secured the coveted first impression rose and the first one-on-one date of the season. He later got a second one-on-one, but things turned sour for the twosome after their hometown date, which aired during the August 2 episode.
Though Katie hit it off with Greg’s family, he was still uncertain about where he stood with the season 25 Bachelor alum and chose to eliminate himself, leaving Justin Glaze and Blake Moynes as the final suitors. On Monday, Katie accepted a proposal from Blake, 30.
After the Canadian got down on one knee, Katie and Greg relived their shocking breakup on the After the Final Rose stage. “I never felt that you actually intended to probably ever get engaged in that journey together,” she told the aspiring actor, claiming that she gave him “validation every week” despite him claiming otherwise.
“For that hometown to go as perfectly as it did until the very end, and for you to do a 180, I feel like you were looking for the perfect opportunity to escape because you were never ready for an engagement,” she added. “I fill a hole in your heart, yet you treated me the way you did. You spoke down to me. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye. You say you love me, but I don’t think you even know what love is because that was a time I needed you the most and you ran away.”
Katie went on to allege that Greg gaslighted her during their breakup, while he argued, “I was thinking that I was expressing my love to my future wife, and you didn’t even feel it.”
Watching the “heated” confrontation from her seat on the stage put Tayshia in “a really tough position,” but she thought it was a teachable moment for Bachelor Nation fans.
“I think that that was a really empowering moment just for women in general, just to know that, like, ‘Hey, I need to share my truth and, like, this is how I felt in that moment and you abandoned me,'” the season 16 Bachelorette said on Tuesday. “At the same time, for Greg, I know that he was feeling all of the things as well. … You saw these two people really have a lot of emotions and feelings.”
While they still might not see eye-to-eye about what changed in their romance, Katie and Greg wished each other the best as they said their goodbyes. When Blake joined her in the hot seat, she gushed about the beginning of their next chapter.
“I think everyone can agree that this is exactly who I was supposed to be with,” Katie noted on Monday. “He fought to be here for me and chose to stay even when I’m telling him to his face that I considered leaving. That he was confident enough to hold both of us till the end, I’m just so lucky. I love him so much.”
