Katie Thurston Explains Why She Didn't Give Blake Moynes a 'Heads Up' About Relationship with John Hersey

Katie Thurston/Instagram

Katie Thurston is "kind of" setting the record straight on her '12 Days of Messy' Instagram series.

On Friday, Thurston, 30, shared a video titled "12 Days of Oops" with boyfriend John Hersey, 27, a contestant who was eliminated during week 2 on her season of The Bachelorette.

The couple candidly addressed the controversy surrounding their relationship and the criticism over their decision to go Instagram official in November, a month after she ended her engagement to Blake Moynes.

Thurston captioned the raw clip: "Do I have regrets? Yes."

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"I'm gonna set the record straight on this – kind of," she began. "John's role I think grew, the closer we got to the last day. Initially, it was gonna be very like lighthearted. It was like, 'Oh, we'll just share a picture. It'll just be a picture from the show.' "

Thurston then explained her last-minute decision to make an even bigger announcement.

"I wanted to really show that to me John is my world. John is handsome. John is romantic. John is everything and I wanted to make a really big, grand gesture to show that," she explained.

"Was there a lot of hate that came with that? Yeah… it's a hard thing to navigate." Thurston continued, "People are always like, 'Well, you should've told Blake…' We talked about giving Blake a heads up."

"But here's the thing that people forget: We're just normal people trying to live normal lives. And when have you ever had to tell an ex that you're seeing someone new?" Thurston questioned.

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The season 17 Bachelorette also admitted her regret over her Instagram series, saying it "wasn't worth it."

"I know it was very controversial and like if I could go back in time and not do the '12 Days of Messy,' I would not, to be honest… It wasn't worth it," she said.

However, Thurston made sure to defend her relationship with Hersey. "What I didn't like is the amount of people who thought there was no way that John and I have a connection. That John is so friend zone, that it's so sad," she said.

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"I love that. That was hilarious," chimed Hersey.

Thurston concluded the clip, "All I know is in the moment I was and am still the happiest I've been and I wanted to make a big, grand statement about where I'm at and who I'm with. And that's all I can do – is live my truth, live my happiness and people who wanna be there and support us great, if you don't, that's fine too."

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The pair confirmed their relationship on the final day of Thurston's Instagram series, where each day, she chose a song from Taylor Swift's Red (Taylor's Version) album that reminded her of a man from her season. Ex-fiancé Moynes, who she got engaged to in her season finale, was Day 1 with "We Are Never Getting Back Together," and Hersey was Day 12 with "Begin Again."

Thurston and Moynes ended their engagement on Oct. 25. She announced her relationship with Hersey a month later.

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In November, Moynes broke his silence on her new relationship.

"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," Moynes said on an episode of the Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation podcast. "I'm a very secure guy, a confident guy, and I give my trust out 100 percent, especially to the person I should be trusting the most."

He continued: "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."