Katie Thurston has “moments” when she feels like she’s dying amid her battle with stage 4 breast cancer.
“I think that comes from reading from other people’s experiences. Just like others, there’s just a lot of unknown. People just aren’t experienced with cancer,” Thurston, 34, said during a Thursday, April 17, appearance on “Uncomfortable Conversations” with host Emmanuel Acho. “You usually hear stage 4, you hear that it’s spread to the liver, and I think automatically people think you have a short time to live.”
Thurston explained “that might be very much true” for certain people.
“For me, I’m trying to be very optimistic and feel that’s not the case for me. Not once has my doctor made it sound like that’s the case for me,” she continued. “The medication and the route that we’re going has been very positive for people.”
Katie Thurston was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2025 at the age of 34. “I had a small lump in my breast around the 10’oclock [sic] spot,” the former Bachelorette wrote via her Instagram Stories that same month. “I discovered it myself. Thought maybe it was my period [or] maybe it was muscle soreness […]
Thurston announced in February that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Katie Thurston Craig Sjodin/ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I will say, I cried in a way that I’ve never heard myself cry. It was just devastated,” Katie recalled during Thursday’s interview. “Beyond anything I’ve ever felt before. Probably the worst feeling of my life, if I’m being honest.”
The following month, she was finalizing treatment plans while moving to New York City with now-husband Jeff Arcuri. (Us Weekly broke the news of their wedding in March.) Multiple spots were subsequently found on Thurston’s liver. She confirmed in March that the spots were cancerous, which put a pause on her chemotherapy plans.
Thurston told followers earlier this month that her first line of treatment going forward will be a combination of “Letrozole + Kisqali + Zoladex.” Her April 10 social media post explained that this was a “custom plan” based on her specific disease — but chemotherapy was not completely off the table.
“They measure it in five-year increments,” Thurston explained during Thursday’s interview. “It’s a weird thing to say but I feel like at least I got five years. Truly, I’d like to think I have 20 or more, given medical advancements and stuff.”
Thurston’s honest answer came after Acho, 34, asked: “Do you feel like you’re dying?” He also asked the former Bachelorette star if she’s grieving “the life you dreamt of living” following her diagnosis.
“I don’t know. I’m still processing, I think,” Thurston replied. “It is a weird reflection of 2020, getting on reality TV and working at a bank and how simple my life almost seemed — even though it was very chaotic. Everything I have experienced, I guess, prepared me for this moment.”
Thurston explained that she’s gone through “a lot of hard stuff in life” and being diagnosed with cancer is “just another battle” for her.
“I f***ing win battles,” she added. “I fight so hard, and this will be the hardest battle of my life, for sure, but I’ve never thought I wouldn’t get through it. I’ve never thought that I would not see the other side. So that’s what I’m hoping to do.”
