'The Bachelorette': Katie Thurston And John Hersey Talk Blake Moynes

Katie Thurston and her boo John Hersey may not have had the most conventional love story within Bachelor Nation.

Then again, finding a long-term relationship through one of the biggest franchises in reality TV history, may not be the most conventional path to true love!

Thurston's season of "The Bachelorette" wrapped up in the Summer of 2021.

After having multiple strong relationships with her men, she got engaged to Blake Moynes, who had previously appeared on Tayshia Adams' season.

Thurston and Moynes seemed head-over-heels in love despite their long-distance relationship, (Moynes lived in Canada and Thurston was based in the U.S.) but the pair split up in October only two months after Moynes' popped the question on her season's finale.

The pair's break-up was anything but smooth: the pair were soon subjected to endless questioning over the demise of their relationship.

The interest surrounding their split was soon amped up once Thurston revealed she had found love once again with Hersey, a contestant from her season who Thurston sent home pretty early.

Talk about a plot twist!

From the get-go, Thurston and Hersey's relationship was marred by rumors surrounding the timeline of their relationship and whether there was overlap between its beginning and the end of Thurston's engagement.

Moynes, himself, was not shy about his feelings concerning his ex-fiancée's personal life.

He went behind the mic to speak his mind on the "Talking It Out With Bachelor Nation" podcast, hosted by fellow Bachelor Nation members Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo.

Having met and hung out with Hersey a number of times while still dating Thurston, Moynes maintained there had to have been emotional cheating happening on Thurston's part.

According to People, Moynes explained "You start to think about timelines. I know they spent a lot of time together and stuff, but there's just no way, I didn't have an inkling. I'm a very secure guy, a confidant guy, and I give my trust out 100 percent, especially to the person I should be trusting the most."

He then revealed exactly where his head was: He said, "I really don't think there was any physical cheating there, but there's clearly emotional for it to transition as quickly as it did."

The beginning of Thurston and Hersey's relationship also took a backseat to the "12 days of messy" series Thurston began on her Instagram stories.

The series was supposed to be a fun tribute to both Taylor Swift's then newly released "Red (Taylor's version)," and the men on Thurston's season, but it was not received as well as Thurston had hoped.

Now that Hersey and Thurston are months away from the "12 days of messy" controversy, the couple are now free to live their post-'Bachelorette' lives together, and they are now ready to give the world a glimpse into their relationship.

On an episode of "On The Vine," Kaitlyn Bristowe's podcast released on March 29th, Hersey and Thurston sat down with their pal to finally tell their story.

Hersey was able to take an objective stance on Thurston's relationship because they were always strictly platonic while she and Moynes were still engaged.

He told Bristowe, "I watched how much effort [Thurston] put into that relationship while it was falling apart. And what really pi**ed me off about that, like, listening to that podcast was when there started to be a narrative get painted that she was putting no effort in, and Blake was the only one putting in effort at the end," as per Us Weekly.

Despite all of the noise surrounding them, Thurston and Hersey knew they were over listening to  the different narratives about themselves and were determined to choose happiness above all.

Thurston revealed "...We just kind of wanted to own exactly what we are. We didn't want to sneak around in public and have people take photos of us or come up with their own agenda or narrative."

Nearly a year after Katie Thurston's split and a new beau later, she and John Hersey are finally getting to do exactly what one of her favorite singers does so skillfully: take back their own narratives, and block out the noise while living their best lives!