The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston has revealed that she has breast cancer and her health battle started out with a feeling of "despair."
Katie, 34, took to Instagram on Saturday, February 15 and posted two photos of herself at the beach.
"Life update: I have breast cancer," Katie captioned her post.
"Yesterday I saw all the couples post their Valentines Day celebrations. I felt envious if I'm being honest."
The Season 17 The Bachelorette alum shared of her fiance Jeff Arcuri, who had proposed marriage in August 2024: "Jeff took me to Hawaii and after, we were going to travel the world before planting roots together in NYC finally."
"But instead, my Vday was spent coordinating a place to live as I have to go back to LA for more testing and treatment," she noted.
Katie admitted she had used her morning "to figure out insurance for NYC and laws on preexisting conditions."
The Bachelor alum continued, "I scheduled appointments for another biopsy, fertility, mental health, surgery, as well as meeting with my team to discuss the overall treatment plan, which will include chemo."
Katie has apparently been experiencing "a range of emotions" over the past two weeks since she received her diagnosis.
"Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength. Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot. I tried to even make a video instead of this post and couldn't," Katie shared.
"But one thing I did early on was search other stories like mine. Other young women with breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma. Mastectomy. Pregnancy after breast cancer. All of their stories helped."
Katie therefore said she intends to be the same source for others.
"This is day one of sharing and is going to be a long one. This first step of acceptance of my reality was the hardest. But I am ready to fight this," Katie insisted.
"And I saved the best for last. To my extraordinary husband to be @jarcuri -- I don't know how I'd do this without you. The selfless love that you smother me in is beyond anything I imagined I'd be blessed with."
She concluded, "I love you to the fullest in this lifetime and the next."
Katie and Jeff got engaged after dating for less than one year.
"When you know you know," the couple captioned a joint Instagram post in September 2024 along with photos of Jeff's August marriage proposal in Kauai, Hawaii.
When looking back on her dating history -- which includes a prior engagement to her The Bachelorette 17 winner Blake Moynes and a public short-lived romance with FBoy Island's Vince Xu -- Katie explained how her approach changed during a December 2024 Q&A session via Instagram Stories.
"Having a large audience was the biggest shift in how I dated," Katie told her followers at the time.
"I wanted someone who wasn't intimidated by my large audience or excited to use my large audience. If you have dirt, those skeletons will make its way to me pretty quickly (and for the best)."
Katie had soft launched her relationship with Jeff back in January 2024 when she was asked to give dating advice on Instagram, but she didn't reveal she was officially dating Jeff until June.
Katie had announced at the time: "Safe to say he's making it to hometowns next week," which was a nod to her prior The Bachelorette stint in 2021.
"I also learned not to post a guy within the first 90 days of dating (it often ended within this exploration phase)," Katie went on to share in her December 2024 Q&A.
"Posting a guy too soon has led me to extend a relationship far beyond its expiration date in order to avoid embarrassment."
When asked about her short courtship with Jeff, Katie joked, "No no no. You don't get to cheer me on during a reality dating show but then side eye me now."
"But all jokes aside, I'm 34 (in less than a week) and he's 37. We are just two independent, mature, adults who know what we want and found that in each other," she continued.
"Also dating long distance to start, really created a foundation like no other."
She added, "Also, I never understood the expression 'when you know you know' and I now feel that deep in my heart for this man. And those who know us in person, see it and get it."
Katie, however, admitted that both she and Jeff have "red flags" going into their wedding planning.
"But when others saw things in us that were challenging, concerning, or weird -- we embraced, healed, and supported those things," Katie gushed of her dynamic with her fiance.
"For example, we are both sensitive. This also means we have patience and understanding for our feelings and talk through them openly while working through any disagreements. Neither of us are 'too cool' for anything so we get to be quirky together."
Jeff, who regularly performs comedy in New York City, has made appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central's Roast Battle. The comedian also traveled on a nationwide "Full Beans" tour earlier this year.
The pair celebrated their engagement party in late November, and Katie shared how she envisions her wedding taking place in an "outdoor forest" or having Pacific Northwest vibes "without the unpredictable weather."
Katie had teased that she was in a new relationship in May 2024 when she shared on the "Your Mom & Dad" podcast, "I'm seeing somebody. I'm off the market! I haven't actually said this yet... You heard it here first!"
Katie had confirmed at the time she was no longer single, but she chose not to unveil her boyfriend's name.
The Bachelor 25 alum gushed further about how she was "happily snatched up" and "very much in that so-called honeymoon phase."
The Bachelorette alum quipped that she had already said, "I love you," to her new partner when she "was drunk."
Katie recalled, however, that she immediately said, "My bad," after making the premature love profession.
"I think he's the best," Katie boasted, later adding, "I literally don't know if there's anything I hate about him. Everything's still cute and quirky and adorable. I'm like, 'Yeah, do that!'"
But Katie admitted, "I recognize that could be a problem and [my view of him] may be unhealthy."
Katie was last romantically linked to Vince, whom she had met and fallen in love with on FBoy Island, which aired last year. The pair won the show and decided to split the $100,000 prize money after Katie learned he was one of the show's "Nice Guys."
After FBoy Island's Season 3 finale aired, Katie expressed how she was pleased with her final decision of selecting Vince over her runner-up Benedict Polizzi on Instagram.
Katie wrote how she was "thankful" to have met Vince and she'd "never forget" their time on the island together, but hours later, Katie confirmed they had split.
When asked if she and Vince were still in a relationship, Katie told her followers on Instagram Stories, "No. That being said, if I'm ever asked to go on reality TV to date again, please just cancel me. Three times and [it] doesn't work out?"
"Maybe reality TV isn't where your husband is, just a thought," she added.
Katie initially found fame when she appeared on Matt James' season of The Bachelor in 2021.
Matt selected Rachael Kirkconnell as his winner, and then ABC promoted Katie to The Bachelorette star of the series' seventeenth season, which wrapped on ABC in August 2021.
Katie got engaged to Blake, a Canadian wildlife specialist, during her season finale, but they announced their breakup only a couple of months later in October 2021.
Katie then went public with her romance with John Hersey, whom she had eliminated during Week 2 of her The Bachelorette journey, in November 2021. She was accused of moving on from Blake quickly with "a rebound" and emotionally cheating on her ex-fiance.
Katie and John split after less than one year together in June 2022, and Katie expressed on numerous occasions how John had dumped her after she allegedly gave the relationship everything she had.
After ending her relationship with John, Katie decided to look for love on FBoy Island because she thought it was a unique opportunity.
Katie told Us Weekly at the time she agreed to do the show because there was a chance she could fall in love, win money, and make new girlfriends.
Katie also made a cameo on Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season last year. Katie showed up to the beach in Mexico when her ex, Blake, was dating Jess Girod.
Blake and Katie still seemed to have chemistry and possibly lingering feelings for each other, which prompted speculation in November 2023 that they were dating again.
But according to Blake, the former couple's relationship was purely platonic after their Paradise reunion, which had given them both closure.
"[Our dynamic] just feels truly just supportive," Blake shared during a November 2023 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
Blake elaborated on where he stood with Katie, "She bounces ideas off me. Like she was going on that other show [FBoy Island] and we were able to connect in the outside world in a way where we can have a healthy relationship with an ex. And so that's where that is."
