Comedian Jeff Arcuri and former Bachelorette Katie Thurston are officially husband and wife, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal.
Two days before their intimate backyard ceremony in the privacy of their own home on Saturday, March 22, Arcuri let it slip during an interview with Thurston at Us’ New York City office that the twosome were getting married.
When asked about how Thurston’s recent stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis has affected their relationship, Arcuri said, “You would think it would cause more tribulation or problems between you, but it’s bonded us more than anything else, which is why we’re moving up the wedding a little bit. … We’re getting married in two days.”
Thurston began to cry as she recalled Arcuri’s “sweet sentiment of being there for me” — becoming her husband before she begins her treatment on Thursday, March 27. (Thurston will be part of the I-Spy breast cancer trial, which is aiming for personalized treatment based on a patient’s tumor. Following that treatment, which could involve several rounds of chemo, she will undergo surgery.)
“It was so sweet. Obviously, we were wanting to plan a wedding and there’s a lot of emotions that come in with chemo and the impact and the health and we don’t know what the next year looks like,” Thurston said. “And one night he said, ‘I want to show you that I still love you and that I’m here to stay. I’ll get married to you tomorrow.’ We flew our parents in from Michigan and Washington State. We got our marriage license and a friend is just gonna marry us.”
After exchanging traditional vows at home on Saturday (with their dog, Charlie, and their parents in attendance), they celebrated with dinner at Da Andrea. The pair will also have a bigger wedding with personalized vows after Thurston beats cancer, she says. “It was this kind gesture of him saying, truly, in sickness and in health,” Thurston told Us of getting married on Saturday. “He is proving that he’s here to stay. He shows up every day and he does it in ways that just continue to surprise.”
Arcuri has made that clear. “I want to be able to be in the hospital with her and just be like, ‘My wife’s in there.’ There’s more power to that,” he said. “I don’t want to be not with you for any of this.”
Thurston (who appeared on season 25 of The Bachelor and starred as the season 17 Bachelorette in 2021) and Arcuri met over Instagram, with Thurston sending her friend a clip of the stand-up comedian exactly one year before their ceremony.
“If you’ve ever looked at his page, you just can’t help but truly fall in love with him as a person. His personality — he’s so pure and just charming,” she recalled. “So on March 22nd of last year, I sent a clip to my girlfriends. I had never talked to him. We had never met. I sent this clip and said, ‘Future husband.’ At the time, I didn’t realize, but I was manifesting my actual future husband, so when we were looking at dates, I was like, ‘Wait, it has to be March 22nd.’”
Katie Thurston’s text message to her friends about future husband Jeff on March 22, 2024. Katie Thurston
After endless hours on the phone — they averaged anywhere from three to six hours daily — the twosome met in person for the first time in Los Angeles on May 5, 2024. They were engaged by August.
“I’ve been in a handful of relationships. Obviously, you have too — on TV,” Arcuri joked before getting sentimental again. “Sometimes when you’re in a relationship early on, you feel like you’re being dishonest or there’s a vibe of 10 percent things you don’t know about them yet. And I never felt that with her. I felt that way [about] myself with her. I’ve always felt like an open book with you. There’s nothing I’d ever hide from you. There’s no reason to.”
Thurston agrees that they were both “fully ourselves” from the beginning.
“You’re the first person to not be upset with my goofiness,” Arcuri continued. “I’ll dance and sing … and she’s the only person that’s ever been cheering me on for it and then videotaping me and joking with me about it as opposed to being like, ‘Oh my God, what are you doing right now?’ I just love that too. You make me feel not stupid.”
The couple have used humor as a way to cope with Thurston’s diagnosis too.
“He’s been great at matching my energy. … People say, ‘You’re so strong.’ I might appear that way,” Thurston told Us. “But I’m also in therapy and some days, I’m very sad. Some days, we’re very fun and playful and make very, you know, out of pocket jokes. So him just being able to match whatever mood shows up that day [is supporting me]. He’s been to every single appointment with me so far. He’s done every single shot that’s involved with IVF.”
Prior to beginning the trial, Thurston underwent fertility treatments at RMA of New York.
“Chemo does impact your reproductive health. It does raise the risk of you not being able to conceive. Knowing that we wanted kids in the future, we thought, ‘OK, let’s do IVF just to have that option.’ We dedicated two weeks before doing anything else breast cancer wise to doing IVF,” she said. “RMA was amazing. I don’t want to say they specialize in Oncofertility, but they understand — and all that really means is taking care of patients who have cancer who also wanna do IVF. [Some] doctors almost frown upon it or they want to put fear in you and say, ‘No, you need to take care of this cancer.’ So a lot of women don’t even realize that you can take 10 days to dedicate time to your reproductive health and your future family plans. We were able to retrieve 17 eggs and of those 17, six became embryos.”
At the end of their chat with Us, Arcuri made a point to praise his bride for being so open about her journey.
“The amount of times that she walks into a room reading a message from somebody saying they got checked because of her — she’s taking what’s happening to her and doing good,” he said. “She’s like, ‘I’m glad it happened to me with my platform so that I can help other people.’”
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