The pair had an emotional breakup in the penultimate episode of the season.
Katie Thurston and Greg Grippo had a tense reunion on Monday's night's Bachelorette finale. After Katie got engaged to Blake Moynes, the franchise lead and her ex spoke about their dramatic breakup during the After the Final Rose special.
Their conversation came one week after audiences saw Katie and Greg's blowout fight, which all started after the marketing sales rep introduced her to his family. While Greg's Hometown date went well, things began going downhill when he said "I love you," and she didn't respond with the excitement or fervor that he'd hoped she would.
The argument played out over more than 30 minutes, as Greg accused Katie of "holding things back," while she attempted to assure him that he was her "number one" by telling him that "this whole thing feels like [it’s] for nothing if you leave." It wasn't enough for Greg, whose parting words for Katie were, "I deserve more than what I’ve been given on your side. I’m not happy here anymore. I’m done here."
On ATFR, Greg said that he hoped with their second conversation, they would "get back on the same page." Though that is not what happened, Greg said he did not regret how the breakup played out "at all."
"I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, everything makes you stronger," he said. "She found her person. I’m grateful for her, honestly, no matter what. She showed me another side to myself. She brought happiness when I didn’t realize what I was missing."
Things turned hostile right when Katie joined Greg on the stage, as she breezed quickly by him and sat down.
"I never felt that you actually intended to probably ever get engaged in that journey together. You’re saying that I’m not validating you enough, but it’s like, you got a first impression rose, you got a first one-on-one, a second one-on-one, every single group date," she said. "In the moment I’m not realizing this, but I’m watching it back, I am giving you validation every single week. For that hometown to go as perfectly as it did until the very end, and for you to do a 180, I feel like you were looking for the perfect opportunity to escape because you were never ready for an engagement."
Greg questioned how Katie could think that, and she was quick to clarify things for him.
"I fill a hole in your heart, yet you treated me the way you did. You spoke down to me. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye," she said. "You say you love me, but I don’t even think you know what love is. Because that was a time I needed you the most and you ran away."
Greg said that he wouldn't have introduced Katie to his family if he didn't think they'd get engaged, but Katie expressed her continued anger toward him, even bringing up rumors that he came on the show hoping to launch an acting career.
"I am very happy, but that doesn’t take away the anger that I had watching this back, and seeing the way you treated me, using to get the experience, the exposure, dare I say the acting practice, at my expense," she said. "It was pretty good until the end when you kind of f**ked it up and ran away."
"Listen, I hate to break it to ya, as much as I wish I was, I’m not Meryl Streep," Greg replied with a laugh.
For Katie, though, she said the problem came not because Greg may hope to pursue an acting career, but because she felt as if Greg was "acting with" her.
"What I’ve been hearing is that Greg’s not this shy guy act that he was doing on the show, he was actually this very confident, cocky boy from Jersey who knows that he’s hot s**t and this is an act," she said. "Paired with those rumors and acting school, I really don’t know if I know who Greg is."
"It’s not even about acting, what it really comes down to is the way that you treated me. The way that you said you were so in love with me. I filled a hole in your heart," Katie continued. "The small second that things got awkward for you, uncomfortable, you ran. You’re a liar. If you think that’s love, you don’t know what love is."
Greg said Katie's statement was "not the truth," and he again brought up their breakup conversation, during which he felt that they weren't "on the same level in terms of where we were at."
"I had three relationships going on," Katie said. "In that moment, I was continuing to be open as the Bachelorette, dating these multiple men who I was falling for. That’s how this works."
Greg apologized, telling Katie, "I’m sorry, honestly, if you feel like I was talking down to you."
Katie was quick to jump in and say that "gaslighting" was a better term, after seemingly accusing Greg of doing just that in a post to her Instagram Story. Greg said he was "passionate in that moment," but Katie wasn't having it.
"Passion that’s what you want to call that? Being rude! You don’t want to apologize for what you saw, the way you spoke to me? You think that’s OK? That’s how you speak to your potentially future wife? That’s how you solve a disagreement?" Katie questioned. "Gaslighting is when you try to make someone else feel like it’s their fault. You came at me as if I did something so horrible that you had to leave. Yet when I’m watching it back, you’re pretty much admitting, 'Oh, I just didn’t feel the same.' And, 'Oh, we’re on different pages.' You could have just been a man and had a normal conversation, instead of being so rude, and dramatic, and leaving without even saying goodbye."
"I’m sorry you feel like that," Greg replied. "I’m sorry the way things ended between us. It was a tough environment to be in... I wish I could go back then and change how I communicated my feelings. In that moment my head was in a million places at once. I truthfully didn’t really want to leave in that moment. I didn’t know what to do."
Katie said she "did everything" she could to try and convince him to stay.
"I was literally on my knees begging this man to stay. I gave him validation every single week, and he had the nerve to look down on me and say, 'I deserve more.' I don’t want that," she said. "I don’t regret anything. The Hometowns were perfect. If I had just kissed you and left that wouldn’t have happened, and so for you to hold on to that one moment and use it as your escape, it feels shady. It feels like you were never there for me."
Greg said that, for him, it wasn't that one moment that made him want to leave, but the fact that Katie seemed to be focused on being the Bachelorette and not about him as a person.
"The reason I’m speaking those terms you didn’t like about roses and next week is because, in that moment, I still don’t know who I’m going to be with," she said. "That’s the way it works!"
When the show returned from a break, Greg said, "I’m sorry that you questioned my integrity on the show and who I am as a person. I felt like I gave you my full self."
"I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love with you like I did. I didn’t know that I was going to find such happiness with you in those moments," he said. "Getting down on one knee is a forever type of thing to me, and I got scared by the terminology you were using. I felt like you were playing the Bachelorette role with me, instead of just being Katie."
"When you told me that you made a promise to yourself that you were only going to say I love you to one person at the end, I respect that, but what that also I feel like did was withhold some emotions and being able to vocalize how you truly felt in moments," Greg continued. "Just as much as you wanted somebody to be certain about you, I also wanted that on my end."
While Katie said she heard and believed Greg, she noted, "if you really did love me, that moment wouldn’t have pushed you away. You would’ve stayed. You would’ve stayed and you didn’t."
Greg didn't find Katie's statement "fair," and once again chastised her Bachelorette role, saying, "I shouldn’t have to ask the woman that I’m possibly going to marry how they feel. You should want to tell me that. I shouldn’t have to ask that."
Katie said that she felt that she told Greg her feelings "week after week after week after week," but Greg was not hearing it.
"Yes, I know you’re the Bachelorette, but still!" he said. "That doesn’t put you any higher in this relationship and put me any lower. I emptied my heart out to you on that couch and all I got was a pat on the back. I just wanted something real at the end of the day. I just wanted it to be a two-way street, especially at that point in time. Especially when you could see when I was leaving. You knew what I needed to hear if you wanted me. And that was just it."
Katie told Greg that giving her an ultimatum was "not really fair," but he denied that he ever did that.
"You just said if I really wanted you to stay I would’ve basically told you that I loved you," Katie exclaimed.
"Well, yeah," he admitted. "At this point, yeah. Let’s face the facts. If it was me, you would’ve stopped me and I knew that."
In the end, Katie got the last words, telling Greg, "All I can say is I had three relationships going on. You keep saying I’m playing the role of the Bachelorette, yeah, I am the Bachelorette. There were relationships that were forming."
"There’s nothing I can do about that except continue to move forward with those," she said. "Yeah, I didn’t leave for you. My person was not Greg. When he left, so did everything I felt for him."
Things ended on a relatively good note, when Greg and Katie both wished each other nothing but the best in the future.
Despite the awkward conversation with Greg, Katie previously told ET that she has "officially made peace with everything that has happened" throughout her season of the show.
"I am in a place where I am very happy with my life and where I am. That is all I can do to continue to move forward," she said. "... I'm ready to get out of the house [and] move forward with my life. Just really figure things out and what the future holds for me."
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