So I’ve got some good podcast news and some bad podcast news. The bad news is this week’s podcast will not be released tomorrow. Or Friday. The good news is it’ll be released on Saturday. Or Monday. Haven’t decided which day yet. The reason for that is this week’s guest is Amanda Grace Jenkins, one of the leads on “12 Dates of Christmas,” which drops all 9 of its season 2 episodes tomorrow. So I need to give people a few days to watch before I release the interview since we cover everything. Amanda Grace is already one of my favorite reality TV personalities ever. I hope you guys go watch the show sometime this weekend. She was great. Very open about her struggle with coming out as a lesbian. Only came out 3 years ago. So we talk about that, we talk about her time on the show, how the show ended up for her, what she’s up to post-show, etc. Very, very interesting and informative interview. What’s crazy is I recorded with Amanda on Monday, and she hasn’t seen the show yet. Obviously she lived it, but she doesn’t watch until it’s released on Thursday on HBO Max. So I think what I’ll do before I release it is briefly talk to her briefly about what she thought, and I’ll add that to the end of the podcast.
Yesterday was officially a shit show. And lets be honest, I’m guessing Hannah Brown is a little put off by the fact that Katie made her “boyfriend” announcement on the day Hannah’s book was released. Because all anyone is talking about is Katie’s finale to her “12 Days of Messy” IG stories, where she officially came out yesterday and revealed she is dating John Hersey, a guy she eliminated week 2 on her season. There’s a lot to unpack here. A lot. Katie stans loved everything about it and ate it up, and then there are people that have questions. I’ve always been fine with Katie. Had questions about how she handled things on her season, but I was never anti-Katie. So with that said, this opinion shouldn’t be taken as anything more than it is – my opinion. I think that was pretty shitty to do what she did yesterday. And it just got worse as the day went on. Just being honest. Let me explain…
First off, it didn’t have to be done. From the second she started the countdown, she knew what day #12 was going to be, what the reveal was going to be, and knew it would draw a ton of attention. Which means 12 days ago, she already knew she was in a relationship with John. Which also means she knew even before that. So everyone saying, “30 days after her breakup with Blake she announces she has a new boyfriend on social media,” are actually off. They’ve clearly been together well before yesterday. Secondly, what did this accomplish? All it did was make people back time everything and ask questions. Viable questions, too. People aren’t just questioning out of dislike or anything like that. They’re genuinely curious, as most fans of the show would be. So by dropping what she did yesterday, she knew exactly what she was doing, it drew attention to her and her new relationship and just seemed rather cold to do. At least to me it did.
And again, Katie can choose to reveal or not reveal whatever relationship she’s in however she wants to. I’m just saying I’m also allowed to have an opinion on it. And from the things she said in past interviews regarding John, to now showing it this way, of course people are going to have questions. Why? Because from the second Katie was done filming her season back at the end of April, she’s shown us numerous times on her own social media platforms how much she’s hung out with John in San Diego. Whether it was in groups or just by themselves, we always seemed to know how much they were together because she posted about it. If yesterday was the first time she’d ever posted with John and she’d announced they were dating, while I’m sure people may have been surprised, I think it would’ve been a more pleasant surprise and not questioned as much. But when we’ve literally seen her for months posting with John since June on and off, while she was engaged to Blake, then one month after the breakup now says, “We’re dating,” how did she not think people will have questions about this?
And yes, I already know what Katie fans response is to this. “She’s allowed to do whatever makes her happy. She doesn’t live her life for other people” blah blah blah. Yes, you’re right. No one’s saying she can’t. And clearly, Katie doesn’t seem to give two shits how this came across or else she would’ve held back. All I’m saying is as an outsider, and as someone who covers this show, my opinion is that her announcing it this way in this grand countdown that took her basically two weeks to do absolutely gives us the right to ask questions about when did this all start, was any cheating involved whether it be physical or emotional, did Blake know about this (he confirmed this morning on Mike & Bryan’s podcast he didn’t), should she have given Blake a heads up if she didn’t, etc. Those are absolutely legitimate questions to ask. Whether she’ll ever address them I don’t know. But I just don’t see the upside to announcing it like she did, the way she did, and the timing of it. Very suspect and I’m sorry, pretty disrespectful to your past relationship.
Knowing this now that they’re dating, and knowing how much time she spent with John over the last 6 months as friends, you can’t convince me the feelings she developed for him didn’t play a role in her breakup. Which is fine. If she fell for him while she was engaged to Blake and that led to them breaking up, shit happens. But when she released her breakup IG post (which she has since deleted), no mention of John, feelings for someone else, etc. And I think we know now her feelings for John absolutely played a role. She did not just start liking him in a different way after Oct. 25th, the day of her breakup post. Spare me. And if Blake was never informed about any of this (which he wasn’t), then he was lied to and misled. The whole situation is unfortunate and could’ve easily been avoided. Like to me, it’s insensitive at the very least, and it’s rubbing her new relationship in Blake’s face essentially, at worst. But Katie likes mess, she loved the attention this brought over the last 12 days, and she knew exactly what she was doing, sooooooo, congrats?
