At last, Bachelor Nation.
It's taken a bit longer than it has in the past, but Reality Steve has finally come through with The Bachelorette spoiler we've all been waiting for.
Oh, yes, readers.
We now know the identiity of Katie Thurston's final rose recipient.
And here's the unusual thing:
He's both a familiar name to long-time viewers of the franchise... and yet he also has not even yet appeared on Thurston's ongoing season.
Is the confusion killing you?
Along with the suspense?
Fair enough, in that case.
We'll go ahead and quote the guru himself, courtesty of Reality Steve's latest blog post:
Katie is engaged to Blake Moynes.
The expert on all things Bachelor and Bachelorette-related writes that it took him seven weeks to gather this intel, and that he's "very confident" it is accurate.
Steve had previously revealed the names of three of Katie's final four contestants, explaining now that he recently "received actual proof that Andrew, Justin, and Greg all didn’t win."
The blogger says he therefore had settled on Blake as Katie's fiance "due to process of elimination" a short while ago, but he didn’t feel comfortable reporting the mega spoiler at the time because he didn't have any evidence.
He only had evidence it was NOT any of Thurston's other finaliists, you know?
On Tuesday, however, Steve says he got the confirmation he required and the information he felt sure enough was valid... to go ahead and announce Blake Moynes as the winner.
Moynes will make his debut this Monday, June 28.
But you've very likely seen his name and face before.
Moynes was a contestant on Claire Crawley's season of The Bachelorette, admitting in December that he was heartbroken when Claire fell so quickly for Dale Moss and then got engaged after just a few weeks.
“It ended so abruptly. It was easy to just be like, ‘OK, fair enough,’” Blake told Us Weekly late last year of Clare leaving early.
Added Moynes to this tabloid several months ago, once again citing Crawley:
“She fell in love hard. And you know, she broke it off, like, too bad for us. It is what it is. It’s unfortunate, but that those things happen.
"I didn’t see it happening the way that it did, and I was shocked, but I got closure.”
After Tayshia Adams arrived at the Palm Springs resort to take over for Crawley, Blake stuck around and started to fall for her as well.
Sadly, Tayshia didn't reciprocate those feeliings.
Moynes was eliminated before the hometown date during a December 2020 episode, and Adams ended up engaged to Zac Clark.
Cut to 2021 ... and Blake tuning into Matt James’ season of The Bachelor ... and watching Thurston pursue the former football player... and, yup, you guessed it... falling hard for Katie, too.
Moynes even reached out to Thurston after James sent her home.
“We had chatted before, but usually what happens is, like, the guys will reach out to the women once they’re eliminated and be like, ‘Good luck, you did great.’ Like very generic, you know?” Katie told Us Weelly in June about their pre-show conversation.
Not long afterwards, Blake popped up on Thurston's Bachelorette season.
"To see him [in New Mexico], I was like, ‘Why is he here?’ Like, ‘What’s happening?’” Katie added a couple weeks ago, talking to this same outlet.
We all know the answer to that question, of course.
Moynes worked with producers to get cast on Thurston's season in order to stir up controversy and boost ratings.
But then it sounds like a funny and perhaps unexpected thing happened:
He and Thurston actually fell in love! And he popped the question! And now they're engaged to be married!
Will they actually make it down the aisle, however?
Reality Steve does not have that answer.
Based on history, though, we're pretty sure that we do.
So allow us to go ahead and prematurely wish Katie and Blake all the best in the wake of their inevitable break-up.