Bachelorette Katie Accused Greg of ‘Gaslighting’ After He Quit Her Season Before the Finale
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
As one of the most talked about contestants from The Bachelorette season 17, fans have wanted to know Bachelorette 2021 spoilers about Greg Grippo long before he made his debut on our TV screens.
Greg is one of 30-plus contestants on season 17 of The Bachelorette with Katie Thurston. Katie a 30-year-old bank marketing manager from Renton, Washington, was announced as the season 17 Bachelorette at the “After the Final Rose” special for season 25 of The Bachelor with Matt James in March. Katie was a contestant on Matt’s season and was eliminated in 10th place, which makes her one of the earliest Bachelor or Bachelorette eliminees to become the lead of her own season. (Michelle Young, a 27-year-old teacher from Edina, Minnesota, was also announced as the season 18 Bachelorette. Her season will premiere later this year.)
More from StyleCaster
What Is Katie's Real Job? Here's What She Did For a Living Before 'The Bachelorette'
Do 'Bachelorette' Contestants Get Paid? What We Know About How Much Katie's Suitors Made
How Much Does the Bachelorette Make? Katie's Salary May Surprise You
Katie filmed season 16 of The Bachelorette from the beginning of March to the end of April at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa in New Mexico. Instead of Chris Harrison, her season was hosted by season 16 Bachelorette Tayshia Adams and season 11 Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe.
In her Bachelor bio for Matt’s season, Katie said that she wants a man who is as “daring and adventurous” as she is. “Katie knows exactly what she wants in a man and is done wasting her time on boys who won’t live up to her expectations,” her bio read. “She is a witty storyteller who says when she finds someone worth committing to, she is the most loving and committed partner anyone could ask for. Katie is daring and adventurous.”
Watch ‘The Bachelorette’ $5.99+
Click here to read the full article.
Her bio continued, “While Katie is serious about finding her person, she needs a man who can laugh along with her but is okay with him laughing at her too when the moment calls for it. Katie is looking for a mature man who has ambitions to succeed in everything he does, both personally and professionally. Her dream man will be passionate about building a long-term life with her and will treat Katie as his equal in the relationship. Nothing turns her off more than someone who sits around playing video games all day or a man who tries to kiss her at the inopportune moment … it’s all about creating the right vibe with Katie!”
So is Greg that man that Katie was looking for? Read on for The Bachelorette 2021 spoilers about Greg we know so far and whether he’s Katie’s winner. (Spoiler alert: Katie’s season isn’t the first Bachelorette season he’s auditioned for.)
Who is Greg from The Bachelorette?
Greg is a 27-year-old from Edison, New Jersey. According to Reality Steve, he was originally cast on season 16 of The Bachelorette with Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams but didn’t make the final cut, which is how he ended up on Katie’s season. (Karl also was almost on Clare and Tayshia’s Bachelorette season.)
In his Bachelorette bio, Greg called himself the “full package” and a “hopeless romantic” and confirmed that he’s “serious about wanting to settle down.” “Greg is the full package. He’s handsome, kind, vulnerable and serious about wanting to settle down. Greg considers himself a hopeless romantic, and a perfect first date would be something active like riding bikes, dancing or going to a concert,” his bio read. “Greg wants to travel the world with his wife before having kids, of which he says he wants to have at least six!”
His bio continued, “Greg is also extremely close with his family and says his parents set his definition of #romancegoals. Thanks to their love, the standards for what a successful marriage looks like are sky high. Greg wants to find someone he can grow old with and treat like a queen, so the Bachelorette may just be swept off her feet!”
For his fun facts, Greg listed the following:
– Greg is not afraid to admit that he cries during movies.
– Greg’s biggest pet peeve is slow drivers.
– Greg dreams of seeing Lebron James play basketball in person.
Before Katie’s Bachelorette season, Greg was already in controversy. In April, the celebrity gossip Instagram account @DeuxMoi received an anonymous submission calling Greg a “manipulative liar” and an “actor.” “Greg G is a manipulative liar and actor on Katie’s season of the Bachelorette. He cleaned up his social media/Linkedin and removed all evidence of his aspiring acting career the past few years,” the submission read.
The anonymous source claimed that Greg attended William Esper Acting School from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, Greg posted an Instagram photo of himself in front of the William Esper Acting School celebrating his graduation. “What a journey. Forever grateful for these last two years @esperstudio,” he wrote in the caption.
In their @DeuxMoi submission, the source called Greg a “total ego-obsessed diva in class” and alleged that he wasn’t on The Bachelorette for the right reasons. “He is not on the show for love, let alone Katie, and his appearance on this show is solely to promote / kick-start his acting career,” the source wrote. @DeuxMoi’s source also claims that Greg has been living at his mother’s house since he graduated from college and “never had a real job up until recently likely because he needed a bio for the show.” (More on what Greg does later.)
In June, @DeuxMoi received a second anonymous tip from a source who claimed to be a friend of someone who dated one of Katie’s Bachelorette contestants. Though the source didn’t name Greg, many assume that the submission was about Katie’s frontrunner because of they describe him as an “actor.” “My best friend dated a fan favorite contestant on The Bachelorette very seriously for a year and a half and he was awful to her. This sweet shy boy act is exactly that, AN ACT,” the source wrote. “He really is actually an actor. I’ve personally witnessed him throw a fit and call her a terrible name for wearing a mini dress, so I can only imagine what happened behind closed doors.”
The source also described her friend and the contestant’s alleged breakup. “He broke up with her, she was extremely upset and then made her Uber an hour back to her apartment alone at 1am,” the source wrote. “We watched our kind, confident friend turn into a shell of herself and then get thrown to the curb. Of course his social media is perfectly curated now, he has an image to protect.”
@DeuxMoi’s source also claimed that the contestant believed to be Greg e-mailed The Bachelorette‘s producers while he was still in a relationship. “Oh and he had been emailing with producers for the show while they were dating; this exposure was always part of his plan to launch his career so whoever wrote that first post is on point,” the source wrote, referencing the previous @DeuxMoi submission.
It’s important to note that @DeuxMoi is an un-fact-checked Instagram account, so neither of these submissions are confirmed. Though, from a look at Greg’s Instagram account, it’s at least confirmed that he’s an aspiring actor and attended William Esper Acting School.
What is Greg’s job?
In his Bachelorette bio, Greg listed his job as a “marketing sales representative.” According to what’s believed to be his Linkedin, Greg attended Rutgers Preparatory School before graduating from Saint Michael’s College in 2016 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing. His most recent job was as an account manager at Mondo in New York City. Before that, Greg worked as a marketing executive at Melaleuca, a wellness company.
Does Greg win The Bachelorette?
So…does Greg win The Bachelorette? No, he doesn’t. The winner is Blake Moynes, a 30-year-old wildlife manager from Ontario, Canada, who became a surprise contestant on Katie’s season in episode 4. As Bachelor Nation members know, Blake was also a contestant on season 16 of The Bachelorette with Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams, where he was eliminated in ninth place. According to Reality Steve, Blake proposed to Katie at the Final Rose Ceremony, and they’re engaged and still together.
Greg, however, is one of Katie’s three finalists. The other finalists are Justin Glaze, a 26-year-old investment sales consultant from Baltimore, Maryland; and Blake. Before Reality Steve revealed the winner, fans thought the winner could’ve been Greg as he received Katie’s “First Impression Rose.” Though it hasn’t happened every season, many Bachelorette contestants who receive the First Impression Rose go on to win their seasons. (Some examples include Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth on season 11; JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers on season 12; Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo on season 13; Becca Kufrin and Garrett Yrigoyen on season 14; Clare Crawley and Dale Moss on season 16.)
However, it looks like Katie and Greg didn’t end their season on good terms. In June 2021, Katie “liked” and “unliked” an Instagram meme that shaded Greg and his “acting career aspirations.” “When the guy next to you is getting interrogated about wanting to be the bachelor and you’ve gotta pretend to be disgusted while hiding your acting career aspirations,” the meme read. The meme referenced another of Katie’s contestants, Thomas Jacobs, who confessed to wanting to be the Bachelor.
After Katie’s shade, Greg’s sister, Samantha, responded to the dig in a since-deleted comment where she expressed how “disappointed” she was in Katie’s behavior. “@thekatiethurston likes this post but was such a supporter of removing the toxicity and mean girls when she was on Matt’s season, you’d think if those intentions when [SIC] genuine she’d had just as much of an issue with this post as well,” she wrote, according to Us Weekly. “Really disappointed in this.”
Fans saw what happened between Katie and Greg on the August 2 episode, which saw Greg quit Katie’s season after her Hometown Date with his family. During the episode, Greg and Katie got into a fight after he confessed his feelings to her, and accused her of “dismissing” them.
“I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with you. I didn’t know that. And I am in love with you. You just make me the happiest I’ve ever been. I see it with you. This is real to me,” Greg told Katie after her Hometown Date with his family. “I haven’t been this vulnerable with anybody in my life. I don’t know what else to show you at this point or what else to tell you at this point. I know in my heart I’m not going to have any regrets after this. I’m not going to get down on one knee twice. It’s a one-deal thing for me.”
When Katie didn’t respond and just longingly stared at Greg, Greg asked her what she was thinking, to which Katie responded, “I just love looking at you.” This upset Greg and made him cold towards her. When Katie noticed this, she told him, “I’ve never felt like you’ve wanted to give up until right now,” which upset him more. The next day, Greg claimed that Katie “dismissed” his feelings with her response.
“I told my mom that you were The One. I was telling my whole entire family that. I truly felt that in my heart and wanted to express that to you. I expressed that I do love you. I felt like I was telling that to a stranger. I don’t know why. This whole entire time has felt like Katie to me, and that night, I was thinking that I was expressing my love to my future wife, and you didn’t even feel it,” he said. “You just completely dismissed it in my eyes.”
Greg then accused Katie of only having feelings for him because of the show. “I don’t give a fuck about the rose. I was just telling you that you filled a hole in my heart,” he said. “I’ve never given up on you. I’ve fought so hard for you here…As much as it hurts me, I’ve reached my breaking point with this. I gave you everything. I really hope you find something.”
After their breakup, Katie took to her Instagram with a post that seemed to accuse Greg of “gaslighting” her during their breakup. “So you want to talk about gaslighting,” the post read.
The post also included a slideshow with a definition for the term, referring to gaslighting as “a form of emotional abuse or psychological manipulation involving distorting the truth in order to confuse or instill doubt in another person to the point they question their own sanity or reality.” The account also listed lying, discrediting, deflecting blame, minimizing, shifting blame and denying wrongdoing as signs of gaslighting.
After the episode, many fans and Bachelor alums also accused Greg of “gaslighting” and “emotional manipulation. “I know he opened up to her and she said ‘the wrong thing’ but shutting down emotionally being like, ‘wut, nothing’s wrong why would you think that’ and then punishing with silence is emotional manipulation 101,” The Bachelor season 22 alum Bekah Martinez posted. “I can’t believe people are justifying this because of his trauma from his dad passing. Completely unacceptable and toxic behavior.”
For more spoilers about The Bachelorette 2021, click here.
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Watch ‘The Bachelorette’ $5.99+
Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman
Buy: ‘Bachelor Nation’ by Amy Kaufman $13.89
To get more of an inside scoop, check out Los Angeles Times writer Amy Kaufman’s book, Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure, for a deep dive into the Bachelor franchise. The book uncovers the secrets of Bachelor Nation, from how much the Bachelor and the Bachelorette are paid to the rules contestants have to follow, that producers don’t want fans to know. It’s a must-read for any Bachelor Nation member.
Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.
Best of StyleCaster
