Katie Thurston Is Exploring 'Romantic Connection' with John Hersey After Blake Moynes Breakup

Katie Thurston is exploring a new romance after her split from Blake Moynes.

The Bachelorette alum is currently seeing John Hersey, another contestant from her season of the ABC dating series, a rep for Thurston confirms to PEOPLE.

"It's known Katie and John became close friends post-season," the rep said. "John has been there for her through all the major changes in her life and they are excited to explore this newly found romantic connection."

On her Instagram Story Tuesday, Thurston, 30, posted a series of clips of Hersey, 27, while Taylor Swift's "Begin Again" played.

"I've been spending the last eight months, thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end. But on a Wednesday in a café, I watched it begin again," Swift sings in the song.

The post included a video of Hersey flying a small plane with Thurston in the back seat and later serving her a cocktail while he was bartending. She also added in the moment the two first met, when he exited the limo on the premiere episode of her Bachelorette season.

"The last couple weeks have been insane, I've felt like I've been dreaming," he told her at the time. "I honestly thought I was going to get out of this limo and see you and kind of snap out of it but that is not the case at all. I feel like I'm dreaming twice as hard right now."

"I feel the same way, so we're on the same page," she replied, later mumbling under her breath: "I think that's my type."

"Did he hear me? I don't know. Play it cool," she said into her mic with a laugh as he walked away.

The post was the conclusion to her "12 Days of Messy" Instagram challenge. "Day 12. John," she wrote at the end of the clip.

Thurston and Moynes, 30, announced their breakup in a joint statement last month, after fans saw them get engaged on her Bachelorette finale in August.

"It is with mutual love and respect that we have decided to go our separate ways," they wrote on Instagram. "We are so grateful for the moments we shared together and the entire journey that has unfolded this year, but we ultimately have concluded that we are not compatible as life partners, and it is the most caring choice for both of us to move forward independently."

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Hersey, meanwhile, was eliminated during week two of Thurston's season. Recently, the pilot-in-training has been making frequent appearances on the reality star's Instagram page, so much so that followers had begun to speculate about a potential relationship between the two.

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"Y'all getting wild in my DMs," Thurston previously wrote on her Instagram Story, seemingly addressing the Hersey rumors.