The Bachelorette winner Blake Moynes has opened up about "really tough" times following his unexpected split from fiancee Katie Thurston.
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"When times are really tough and things just aren't going the way you had hoped.. it's always the same 'gang' that gets ya back on your feet," Blake captioned a slideshow of photos featuring his dogs on Monday.
"Feels good to start getting back into the swing of things."
Blake, who apparently took his dogs to Hamilton Beach to play fetch and jump in the water, continued, "But, as much as I do lean on my human/furr fam at times like this, I really do have to acknowledge you all, my new found social family for all the love, support, encouragement and even patience over the past week."
Blake concluded, "Cheers to you, super grateful...fur real. #family #furfamily #socialfam."
Blake received supportive comments from his followers as well as The Bachelorette alums Michael Allio, Chasen Nick, Jason Foster, and Brendan Quinn.
Blake uploaded his post hours after Katie addressed their breakup publicly for the first time in a teary-eyed Instagram video on Sunday.
"Obviously a public relationship ending is a really sh-tty thing to have to navigate, but you guys have been very kind and supportive and I just wanted to say thank you for being that way to me and to Blake, and just [for] being understanding," Katie said.
Katie gently asked her followers not to harp on the negative or assume too much about the demise of her televised relationship.
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"I think a lot of people, I don't know, hold too much weight to things that don't matter. You know, I'm a big believer in your happiness. Your happiness is the most important thing, and that being said -- why would you not pursue that?" Katie shared.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"I think a lot of people stay in relationships because they put so much time and effort into it and they keep waiting for new results thinking, like, 'Once this happens, it'll change. Once we get engaged, once we get married, once we have kids things will change, they'll get better.'"
Katie added, "And sometimes you don't have to wait for a big thing."
Katie therefore suggested many factors led to her split from Blake and there was no explosive or dramatic end to their romance.
"I think a lot of people are like, 'Well, what really happened? What's the big thing that happened with Katie and Blake?' And it's like, we were together for six months," Katie said.
"Blake and I are very levelheaded and mature and we communicate very well on our thoughts."
Katie went on to hint that she and Blake may have argued a lot or were simply unhappy with their situation.
"We just both knew if this is how our first six months was as a couple, going forward, it was going to not be in our best interest for our happiness to stay together. And so we, you know, as mentioned, mutually decided to part our ways," Katie noted.
"But we still stay in touch and we still support each other. [There's] nothing but love and respect, truly. It's a tough thing to navigate, because then of course people question the authenticity of the love and the relationship."
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Katie took a shot at the people who have been criticizing her or doubting her sincerity.
"For those people passing judgment, I can only hope to be so lucky as you to find your forever love on the first [try]," Katie snapped.
"Ending a relationship isn't something new, ending an engagement isn't something new, divorce is not something new."
Katie then choked back tears and said, "I think Blake and I were very fortunate enough to recognize things early and [we] made the best decision for us. That does come with its own challenges."
Katie confirmed she and Blake are "still processing a lot of waves of emotion" and their hearts are not yet mended.
"I don't know. It's a lot. I didn't expect to [cry], but yeah, I just wanted to hop on and say 'thank you,'" Katie said.
Katie continued, while fully crying at this point, "Sorry... Obviously it's a lot. But what I was trying to say so confidently, and I am confident in it... is at the end of the day, your happiness is what's important."
"If something is taking that away from you -- and that's not even a dig at Blake, that's just a dig at what him and I were as partners -- then we owe it to each other to step away. And so that's what we're doing."
The Sun reported last week that Katie is "embarrassed" by how quickly her engagement to Blake ended.
"This is not the outcome she wanted and she really, really wanted to find her person," a source explained.
"But they both appear to love their newfound fame so I wouldn't be surprised if either, or both, end up on Bachelor in Paradise next year."
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According to an insider, a "big thing" for the couple was the fact "they had issues with their communication styles," The Sun recently reported.
"Katie is much quicker to call little things out whereas Blake just lets things slide," the insider alleged. "Her outbursts eventually became too much for him to handle."
The insider also claimed that Katie had felt she was "putting more [effort] into the relationship than" Blake was.
Katie and the wildlife manager reportedly broke up on the weekend of October 22 after the Season 17 The Bachelorette star performed stand-up comedy for the first time in front of an audience at a show in Anaheim, CA.
The Sun previously reported that Katie flew up to Canada on Saturday, October 23 -- just a few hours after the comedy show -- to address problems she and Blake had been having and putting off for many weeks.
Multiple reports have circulated that living in different countries and trying to make a long-distance relationship work is why Katie and Blake's engagement failed.
Katie just moved into a new San Diego, CA, apartment in August, and Blake -- who lives in Toronto, Canada -- often travels to Africa for his endangered-animal conservation efforts, most recently involving the rescuing of rhinos.
Katie reportedly missed Blake when he was gone and wished he could be with her more; however, neither person was allegedly willing to move for the other.
The Sun reported the breakup was "not one person's fault," infidelity had nothing to do with it, and Katie and Blake had simply "rushed into things."
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When Katie and Blake released their joint breakup statement on social media late last month, they called themselves "grateful" for the moments they had shared but noted how it's "the most caring choice" "to move forward independently."
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"I'm, like, totally winging my life right now," Katie had told Us Weekly.
During the Us interview, Katie -- who originally competed for Matt James' heart on The Bachelor's 25th season -- had sounded somewhat indifferent about her relationship with Blake, who first appeared on The Bachelorette's sixteenth season last year and joined Katie's season several weeks into the process.
"We're figuring it out," Katie had said. "We don't know. This is very new to us still. I'm just focusing on myself, he's focusing on him, and if we work doing that, great."
The couple's breakup may have shocked many fans because about two weeks ago, Katie had taken to Twitter and clapped back at speculation she and Blake had called it quits.
On October 15, Katie tweeted a screenshot of one of her recent Instagram comments that read, "You and Blake are not liking each other's posts. Is all OK?"
The screenshot showed that Katie immediately responded to the fan, "Yes," with a tears-of-joy emoji.
Katie tweeted alongside the image, "Imagine your fiance has been on his [Instagram] stories for weeks in Kenya working his ass off and yet this is what some people notice," in addition to another tears-of-joy emoji.
But when Blake left for Africa to focus on saving animals, Katie reportedly wrote on Instagram earlier in the month, "It can feel lonely moving to a new state... I've had trouble sleeping lately... I'm still trying to navigate this new life and city while seeking normalcy."
When Katie and Blake were still together, they had said they were in no rush to wed and intended to travel together and learn more about each other's backgrounds, interests, hobbies and hometowns before deciding on an "anchor spot," or city in which to put down roots as a couple.
"I don't think people fully understand what it's like to date someone from another country and the rules behind that and the visas behind that," Katie said in a series of late-August videos posted to her Instagram Stories.
"I think right now Blake can only be here for 60 days before having to go back to Canada. So we really do have a lot we have to look into -- and we just haven't yet."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
