The Bachelorette winner Blake Moynes has admitted his breakup with Season 17 star Katie Thurston "hasn't been easy."
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Blake and Katie got engaged during The Bachelorette's seventeenth season finale, which filmed in April and aired in August. The pair subsequently announced their decision to call it quits on their relationship on October 25.
"I know it hasn't been easy for her, just like it hasn't [been] for me," Blake said in a Monday Instagram video. "The Internet is a very cruel, nasty, sh-tty place."
The wildlife manager captioned his Monday post, "In today's world it's easy to get sucked into all the negativity and your mind can sometimes be your worst enemy."
"To get back into a positive head space, I rely on passion," he added. "I channel that passion to do good. When you do good, you feel good."
Blake's video was intended to share the news of his latest project regarding his animal conservation efforts.
In the video, Blake shared, "Today, something super exciting came to fruition that I've been working on for a little while now -- that I've had to put on the back-burner for weeks just due to the obvious events that have happened... with Katie and I and the breakup."
Blake essentially thanked his followers and Bachelor Nation for "the love and support" they've given him.
"The community that we've kind of created here through this amazing experience that I've had allows me to commit to trying to make a difference in the world," Blake explained.
"And when I talk about 'me,' it's really 'us,' because this wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for you guys, for this community that we created... And I just want to say thank you for that because, together, we're going to be able to make a difference in the world."
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWThe Toronto, Canada native then recalled spending three weeks in Kenya in the beginning of October, which apparently contributed to the demise of his relationship with Katie -- a Washington native who currently resides in San Diego, CA -- given they had been struggling with long distance.
"[The trip] really opened my eyes... to what we're doing to this world and the crisis that's happening right now, especially when it comes to wildlife," Blake noted.
"When I left there, it was very obvious to me that I wanted to do something more. And so I think when you're given an opportunity like this and a platform to just do something good with it, [you should not be] self-serving."
Blake has therefore created a new project called The Mowgli Moynes Fund.
"I'm able to contribute and I'm going to contribute. I'm going to make a commitment to it," Blake said.
Blake insisted he's going to take a portion of whatever comes in financially through his different social-media accounts and "put it right back into a wildlife conservation fund, The Mowgli Moynes Fund."
"I'm really, really excited because we're going to be able to do a lot of great things," Blake gushed.
"There's a lot of cool projects on the horizon and so I want you guys to stay tuned because you're going to see where this money is going and how it's going to be used and why it's important."
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Blake began wrapping up his video by calling himself just "a vessel" for the project.
"We're doing this together. I'm super excited and I can't thank you enough. We're going to do a lot of great together," Blake concluded.
"Good stuff ahead, stay tuned. I really, really appreciate all the support, and I know Katie does too."
On November 1, Blake shared on Instagram how he had been relying on family, friends and his dogs to get him through his breakup with Katie.
"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 wrote at the time. "Feels good to start getting back into the swing of things."
Blake is rumored to be up for consideration to star on The Bachelor's 27th season.
Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone reported late last month that The Bachelor will be airing two seasons of the show, Season 26 -- starring Michelle Young's The Bachelorette suitor Clayton Echard -- and Season 27 in 2022.
The new scheduling change would likely push The Bachelorette's 19th season back to Fall 2022.
And now, according to the @Deuxmoi Instagram gossip account, ABC is considering Blake as the leading man for Season 27 due to his "really big personality" and similar The Bachelor franchise storyline to Nick Viall.
The Bachelor's 27th season is expected to begin filming in February 2022 and premiere in Spring 2022.
Blake previously competed for both Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams on The Bachelorette's sixteenth season last year.
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Meanwhile, Katie has reportedly found "clarity" and now "knows what she wants in a husband," according to Us Weekly.
However, a source explained to the magazine earlier this week that Katie "is not rushing to jump into another relationship right away."
"She's still hopeful on finding love but wants to make sure her head is in the right space," the source said.
"Right now, she's just figuring out what she wants to do in life. In her mind, her future was with Blake, so now she just has to start fresh and figure out her next steps."
Over Halloween weekend, Katie uploaded a video on Instagram hinting at the cause of her split from Blake.
"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.
Katie suggested there were many small things and factors that caused damage to her 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 too much.
"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.
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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."
She concluded, "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."
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.
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.
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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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"I'm, like, totally winging my life right now," Katie had told Us in October.
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."
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
