Reality TV star Katie Thurston, who is battling stage four breast cancer, forced to make video to say she's not dead amid false death rumours
The Bachelorette TV star Katie Thurston has been forced to make a video confiming she is still very much alive after false rumours she has died of cancer started circulating.
34-year-old Katie was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer earlier this year. She’s uploaded many emotional videos since then explaining more about her health, but in her most recent video she’s been forced to confirm she is alive and well.
That’s because there’s a death hoax being shared online, with some people claiming that The Bachelorette star has lost her battle with the disease.
Speaking emotionally in a video posted to her Instagram Story on Friday (September 26), Katie said: "I literally wanted to take time away from social media, but then I was getting, like, texts from people I don't normally hear from. Then, I got DMs from people, and everyone's like, 'Are you OK?'".
“I've seen this article go around before, but something about tonight really f****** p***** me off. It was triggering. I tried to report it [but] there's nothing I can do. I just feel helpless. I'm so mad right now."
The star went on to ask for support in how to combat false stories like this, and how to get them taken down from social media sites: "Like, if anyone works at Facebook [or] has any suggestion on what I can do, please tell me,” she appealed. In a follow-up Story, she wrote: "[I'm] still here. FB is just constant clickbait. Please report these people. They suck! ! This is so triggering."
Yesterday, (Saturday September 27), however, Katie returned to Instagram and decided to make light of the rumours by making a video advertising her friend’s coffin company. In the video Katie joked that she was "up here chilling with God”. She had also added angel wings and a halo to her image.
In the sarcastic clip, she said: "It's me on the other side. I do just want to shout out Facebook for letting my friends, family, myself know that I have passed on. Just want to let you know things are good. . . I just want to let you know things are good. Life is great up here."
Many of Katie’s fans celebrated the video. “You’re amazing,” one person said. A second wrote: “Seriously love how you handled this this morning!!! So crazy and sad for them to post such things as you. I watched your story last night and seeing this made me smile in the lightness and ridiculousness.”
A third penned: “I love that you were able to use humor and make light of a completely f’d/bs situation. Whoever posted those should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.”
Since publicly revealing her diagnosis in February Katie, who rose to fame when she appeared on the hit reality dating show The Bachelorette in 2021, has been vocal on social media about navigating life with breast cancer. The reality star has Stage 4, hormone-positive, HER-2 negative breast cancer that had spread to her liver.
She’s been candid about her health and her cancer journey ever since, openly discussing her treatment and the impact that has on her in a series of social media videos. Katie, who married comedian Jeff Arcuri in March, said her treatment will “technically last forever” but she is hopeful that she’ll one day be in remission, or as close to it as possible.