Katie Thurston made her stance on sex positivity known during her Bachelor Nation tenure, though her tagline might have been a bridge too far.
“When I had the opportunity to go on the Bachelor and I was talking to the producer, like, ‘What if we do this?’ and it became this whole thing, then my tagline for The Bachelorette was ‘see what the buzz is all about,’” Katie, 34, recalled during the Friday, August 22, episode of the “Barely Famous” podcast. “I’m, like, ‘OK, we might be a little bit of an overkill now.’”
Katie initially made waves on TikTok during the coronavirus pandemic when she filmed “little skits” of herself talking about sex.
“A lot of people enjoyed those conversations,” she explained to podcast host Kailyn Lowry. “I never thought it would go anywhere.”
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Katie then notably brought a sex toy — which was censored with a black box on the broadcast — when she met franchise lead Matt James, leading producers to make puns about it when she was cast as the next star. Katie’s still overtly sex positive.
“It’s not my focus or identity, but I’ll partner with a vibrator brand and talk about it, no problem,” she explained. “I will get DMs from people [and] I’m happy to dissect … why it’s OK to use a vibrator, or why it’s OK to incorporate it with your partner. It’s not a bad thing [and] it’s not a sin. I don’t see myself ever shying away from that.”
Katie added, “It is a topic I was very passionate about and wanting to educate women and men on. I think it’s something that needs to be taught in school as young as middle school.”
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Despite Katie’s openness, she still faced backlash for her candor.
“Bachelor tends to have a more traditional audience, so it was very polarizing,” she recalled. “You had some people who were like, ‘Hell yeah, finally. We could be friends.’ Then, you have people like, ‘You’re going to hell. You’re disgusting [and] you’re a slut.’ I’m, like, ‘You’re watching The Bachelor [and] The Bachelorette. You know the finale, if you want, [you can] go to the fantasy suites with three different people.’”
Katie continued, “You can’t support the show, and then have a double standard, you know?”
Katie got engaged to late arrival Blake Moynes during her season, but they broke up within months. She later dated fellow contestant John Hersey for nearly a year before moving on with comedian Jeff Arcuri. Us Weekly broke the news in March that they tied the knot amid Katie’s battle with stage 4 breast cancer.
