Bachelorette contestant Greg Grippo has been a major front-runner during season 17 and even received the first impression rose from leading lady Katie Thurston. However, it appears their relationship ended after an explosive fight during the August 2 episode.
Katie, 30, met the 28-year-old’s family during his hometown date. The leading lady even told Greg’s mom that she wanted to “pursue a relationship” with her son in the coming weeks.
“I hate to use the word frontrunner, but Greg is someone I have a strong connection with … Greg will be here next week,” the Bachelor Nation starlet assured.
However, their bliss was short-lived. During the evening portion of their date, the New Jersey native could not understand why she needed to keep dating her other finalists, Blake Moynes and Justin Glaze.
“I can’t be there at the end if I don’t think it’s us,” Greg told Katie. “I just don’t understand how you don’t know at this point. I just don’t get it.” He later went to her room to talk more about their situation, but things spiraled from there.
The contestant said he had reached his “breaking point,” but Katie explained she wanted to save telling someone she loved them until the very end. “Are you not wanting to stay anymore? Are you done?” she asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Greg said. “It was never about a rose for me this week. I was never asking you to confess your love to me. All I was asking for was Katie.”
The leading lady admitted she didn’t know how to navigate dating multiple men and tried to diffuse the situation. “I’m losing you. I’m losing my mind here. This whole thing feels like for nothing if you leave,” she told him.
In the end, Greg left and Katie was emotionally wrecked. She told host Kaitlyn Bristowe that she felt “blindsided” by her frontrunner’s decision to leave. “I want someone to book my flight home,” Katie said. “I am done. I am done. I am done. This is [bleep] [bleep]. I’m done.”
Katie has dropped a few subtle hints on social media that things went sour between her and Greg.
On July 20, the Washington native shared photos from week 7’s episode. One snapshot showed Katie huddled with Blake, Justin, Michael Allio and Andrew Spencer during their group date. Instead of posting a photo with Greg from their one-on-one that week, the TikTok influencer opted to share a picture of her kissing a fish from their day together.
Greg, who was initially cast for Clare Crawley’s season, has come under a bit of scrutiny during his time on The Bachelorette by some fans who accused him of being on the show for fame. Multiple outlets reported that the marketing sales rep attended William Esper Acting School between 2017 and 2019, but he has deleted the evidence from his social media accounts. Greg has not responded to these claims.
Katie seemingly reacted to the clout-grabbing shade when she “liked” then “unliked” a meme on Instagram that showed a photo of Greg with his head in his hand. “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 caption reading.
To further speculation that things ended tensely between Katie and Greg, the contestant’s sister, Samantha, left a comment slamming the Bachelor Nation starlet.
“@katiethurston likes this post but was such a supporter of removing the toxicity and mean girls when she was on Matt [James’] season,” Samantha wrote in a now-deleted comment, according to multiple outlets. “You’d think if those intentions [were] genuine she’d have just as much of an issue with this post as well. Really disappointed in this.”