Katie Thurston is saying goodbye to “FBoys” after finding her match on FBoy Island.
Katie, 32, was left to choose between Vince Xu and Benedict Polizzi during the season 3 finale, which aired on The CW on Friday, December 8, picking Vince.
Since Vince, 31, came on FBoy Island as a “nice guy,” he and Katie got to split the $100,000 prize fund. (“FBoys” like Benedict, 33, could steal the entire jackpot for themselves, though the comedian did not plan to had he won.)
“I just wanted to let you know that I definitely found love. And I love you, Vince,” Katie gushed in the Friday episode before Vince called the moment a “dream come true.”
After the episode aired, both Katie and Vince took to social media to tease where their romance currently stands.
“To @vincexu — I’m thankful our paths continued to cross and that you are now part of a chapter I’ll never forget,” she wrote via Instagram on Friday night, sharing selfies of the pair. “Glad we finally experienced those bottomless mimosas we dreamt about while on the island. .”
Vince replied with a trio of heart emojis before reposting the image onto his Instagram Story. The attorney also posted a fortune cookie message that read, “You will find good fortune in love” in a subsequent Story slide. (Katie posted the same fortune cookie several hours earlier with a mystery man in the background.)
Despite her gratitude for the experience, Katie confirmed that she and Vince are no longer dating.
“That’s what everyone wants to know,” she said in an Instagram Story Q&A on Saturday, December 9. “No. That being said, if I’m ever asked to go on reality TV to date again, please just cancel me. Three times and [it] doesn’t work out? Maybe reality TV isn’t where your husband is, just a thought.”
Katie, who previously starred on The Bachelorette season 17, was announced as one of the FBoy Island season 3 leads in July. She was joined by Hali Okeowo and Daniella Grace, who ended up choosing Mercedes Knox and Christian Love, respectively. Katie, Hali, 28, and Daniella, 33, waded through a pool of unidentified “nice guys” and “FBoys” all season long.
Katie sparked instant connections with Vince, who was briefly engaged to high school crush Yurika Yoneda on Prime Video’s The One That Got Away, and Marco Delvecchio on the show. Vince fell madly in love with Katie (despite mixing up the name of her beloved cat, Tommy) early on in the process while she weighed her options. She was pleasantly surprised when Benedict, the runner-up from FBoy Island season 2, showed up late to win her heart.
While it was obvious to Katie that Vince was a “nice guy,” she was shocked to learn that Benedict was an “FBoy.” Benedict, meanwhile, had proclaimed that he would split the money with Katie because he had genuine feelings for her.
Katie’s reality TV career began in 2020 when she appeared on Matt James’ season of The Bachelor. She became the Bachelorette one year later and got engaged to Blake Moynes. Katie and Blake, 33, eventually called it quits before she briefly moved on with her former contestant John Hersey. FBoy Island marked her first foray back into dating after the split.
“There were so many different [reasons I signed up for this],” Katie exclusively told Us Weekly in October. “I watched season 2 when I was invited and said, ‘OK, well let’s see what this show’s about.’ And watching it, it was so hilarious — satirical, almost — that it was just such a different experience from my Bachelor experience and I was looking for something a little more lighthearted.”
She added: “Yeah, there’s a chance I fall in love, there’s a chance I win money, there’s a chance I make new girlfriends. It was just a win-win-win all the way around.”
When Katie got to the set, she realized that she had way more “uninterrupted quality time” with her suitors than she had on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
“I would just forget, like, 20, 25, 30 minutes later, and then finally another guy’s coming. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s other guys here,’” she quipped to Us. “It was such a normal experience in a very un-normal [environment]. There wasn’t a lot of outside interference.”