We Asked The Bachelorette ’s Katie Thurston and Blake Moynes About Their Future Plans

When Katie Thurston's season of The Bachelorette premiered in June 2021, she told Glamour that her journey would end in “the most unexpected way.” Now, some eight weeks later, we finally have answers. The 30-year-old from Seattle got engaged to Canadian Blake Moynes, also 30. But in true Bachelor Nation fashion, some major drama went down before she could show off her Neil Lane ring and celebrate in secret.

Heading into the hometown dates, single dad Michael Allio decided to leave the show to be with his four-year-old son, which understandably left Katie in tears. Then her “front-runner” Greg Grippo departed in dramatic fashion after declaring his love to Katie and accusing her of not returning the sentiment, even though she said she wouldn't be saying “I love you” to anyone until the end.

The whole thing resulted in a devastated Katie locking herself in her bathroom, telling cohost Kaitlyn Bristowe she wanted her to book her flight home. (One small problem—Blake and Justin were still in the competition, but at that point Katie was done.)

Thankfully, after a heart-to-heart with Kaitlyn—and probably a good talk with a framed photo of her cat, Tommy—Katie decided to stick it out and go all in with the guy who turned out to be the front-runner all along, Blake. She even told him she loved him as soon as she he said it to her. (As for Justin, Katie let him down before their overnight date.)

But all wasn't smooth sailing. Blake still had to meet Katie's family, namely her mom, Rhonda Lee, and Aunt Lindsey. (Note to producers: You really should have thought about getting Peter Weber's mom Barb and Katie's Aunt Lindsey to guest-host an episode of Bachelor in Paradise.) Rhonda Lee was tough, but nothing compared with Aunt Lindsey—who, well, doesn't quite have the best bedside manner.

In the end Blake and Katie rose above tough-talking family members and proposal nerves and got engaged. And good news, Bachelorette lovers: Two months post-engagement, the two are more in love than ever. Glamour's Jessica Radloff caught up with the happy—and hand-holding—couple over Zoom to talk relocation plans, Blake's birthday date night, and why Katie was still so angry with Greg on After the Final Rose.

Glamour: There’s the happy couple! Katie, you kept telling me you couldn’t wait for the finale to get here. Now that it’s aired, is it everything you had hoped?

Katie Thurston: Yes! It just feels like I can breathe again and close this door, move forward, and start really living life as an actual couple. It's all I've been waiting for these past couple months.

What did your mom and Aunt Lindsey say after you revealed you were engaged?

Katie: They knew I was with Blake because there were so many times I was leaving to go visit him. They just didn’t know what level. The closer we got to the end, the more that I think they had their suspicions. They didn't seem too surprised, but they're very happy and supportive. Even my grandpa texted me and said, “We can't wait to meet him.” It's exciting that we can actually do that now.

Blake, have you been in Canada or somewhere else during the last few months? How often did you guys actually get to see each other?

Blake Moynes: [Laughs.] I literally have been in hiding because I've been living the whole summer in quarantine. Every time I would go visit her, I would come back to Canada and have to isolate for 14 days. So that's why you didn't see many Instagram posts or Stories from me as I typically do because I was locked up in my house. I lived the whole summer in quarantine. I would pop out to visit her, come back, and quarantine. It was kind of a nightmare for a lot of the summer.

Most important, what’s your relationship like now with Tommy, Katie’s cat?

Katie: Oh, he hasn't met Tommy, because we’ve been meeting at neutral locations. We can't risk being seen, so we go somewhere we don't even know and spend time together. We're actually going to Canada this week, so I'll get to meet his pets and his family. [Pause.] I like how I said pets first. [Laughs.] And then we'll just kind of start working our way into our normal life again.

The last few episodes were extremely emotional and heavy, so what was it like watching them?

Katie: We watched most of them together. Leading into each episode, I always let Blake know, “This is what I think is going to happen here, and things that I said.” Toward the end is when you start to really see the relationships I had; because in filming, I was very private about every guy I was dating. No one really saw me interact unless I was one-on-one. It was a little difficult, especially, with the Greg breakup. But we've been able to work through that as easy as it could be, and that's because of how we communicate. We're very grounded and understanding of one another. People thought it was gonna really rock our relationship in a bad way, and it really hasn't.

Blake, the last time I spoke to Katie, I told her that you guys had a chemistry that was unmatched, so it was tough even for me watching Katie say that Greg was kind of her front-runner. How did you handle seeing that play out?

Blake: Yeah, the chemistry you saw with us—imagine being in the relationship where you feel it even more. When I came on the show, I was super confident, knowing what this could be. So as much as the doubt wants to creep in during those moments when you're watching it back, Katie prepared me for everything. There's been an understanding, and it's important that I be empathetic of what she's going through. I mean, what would you say in that situation? There's two guys that left and she's probably breaking down and doing everything she can to keep this guy around. I always thought I was the number one guy…and it ended that way. As much as doubt wants to creep in, we’re just so strong. It's a thing of the past.

Absolutely. Katie, I want to give you a chance to respond to a lot of the conversation on Twitter last night wondering why you were still so upset with Greg if you were happy now with Blake. You hadn’t seen Greg since he walked out, so you hadn’t had that closure. What do you want to say to those who were questioning why you still had so much frustration and anger toward him after all this time?

Katie: Yeah…well, I know you can be in love and happy with your relationship and still be upset with how an ex treated you. It wasn't until I watched that episode back, which was right before going onstage with Greg, that I saw it for the first time. I have a lot of anger [about how things went down], so that's what After the Final Rose is for—to get that closure and have those conversations that you didn't get to have in the moment. I had to get things off my chest. I spoke my truth and he did the same, and now we can close the door and move forward.

Blake, talk to me about what your relationship is like now with Aunt Lindsey? She had a point to some of what she was saying, but she presented it in a very off-putting way. That’s not how you want to talk to someone potentially entering the family.

Blake: I haven't spoken to her yet, but I think we're going to actually really get along. She's very blunt, open, and confident, and you can tell she has a very fun side to her. I probably would ask some really tough questions like she did. She just wants the best for Katie. And although I wasn't expecting it, I think I handled it okay. Definitely not the answers she wanted, clearly, but I think a lot of people would probably crumble in those moments as I kind of wanted to at some points. But we're going to be just fine. I'm glad she's on my side now.

So what is the living situation going to be going forward? What are your immediate plans?

Katie: We're going to spend weeks at a time in Canada, which is where we're headed to next. And I'm going to be moving to San Diego, so Blake will come visit me there. We just gotta figure it out. We don't really want to plant roots right now, so we're just going to be spending time together in multiple locations.

What’s in San Diego?

Katie: The sun! [Laughs.] I'm from Seattle. If I have the opportunity to live somewhere warm, that's what I'm going to do.

Blake, how do you feel about perhaps leaving Canada—which is a beautiful country—but a lot different from San Diego?

Blake: I think that the flexibility we have is nice and I love a new adventure. I'll pull the trigger on anything, adventurewise. I like a fresh start like that. So it's going to be really exciting to be there for a lot of times during the year. And I’ll be excited to have her back up to Canada and go to the cottage in the summer and things like that. It's nice to have two home bases. Being in the States and being in Canada are two things that are important to us, so we're going to be supporting each other in that way.

You both love animals, so have you talked about teaming up together to do something involving that, going forward, since it is such a shared interest?

Katie: Oh, you don't even know! I mean, it's probably our biggest topic in that we do have this big platform to do good with. I think you will start to see a lot of advocacy for animals and the planet because our passions align that way. It's going to be so fun to do that together, and to share that with everyone who is following our journey.

On After the Final Rose, you said you’re more in love now than ever before. Tell us how you’ve grown, and what you love most about each other.

Katie: We get more time with each other now, whether we're on the phone every day or when we're spending time together during the little retreats. What I love most about him is that he's so calming. No matter how stressed I am, he always finds a way to bring me back down and remind me of what's important. That's the kind of guy I want in my life. He keeps me grounded.

Blake: The show really gives you those concrete building blocks to have big, tough conversations that you have to have. And then when you get to spend time together, it's the little things that fill in the gaps, like the jokes and the making coffee in the morning. You really start to build the foundation. There's a maturity level between us and a nurturing quality, and that’s really exciting.

Now that you can be public with your relationship, what are you doing to celebrate?

Blake: My birthday was yesterday, so she's taking me to the California Wildlife Center. It's a rehab center in California that I've told her about a couple of times that I wanted to go see.

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram @jessicaradloff14.

Originally Appeared on Glamour