Why Did Kat & John Henry Break Up From Bachelor in Paradise? She Revealed the Real Reason For Their Split—Here’s if It Lines Up With His Story
Jason Pham
She’s back on the beach for her second shot at love, but why did Kat and John Henry break up from Bachelor in Paradise in the first place? They both revealed the real reason for their split, and may be Bachelor Nation’s saddest love story yet.
Kat Izzo, a contestant from The Bachelor Season 27 with Zach Shallcross, and John Henry Spurlock, a contestant from The Bachelorette Season 20 with Charity Lawson, met on Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 in 2023. They got engaged in the finale after John Henry proposed to Kat and the two exchanged their final roses.
“I’ve always, kind of, trusted my gut and I feel like in life that it’s helped me at times. Right now, my gut is telling me that it’s too soon — a lot of what ifs, is this real. But right now, I’m gonna try something a little different and follow my heart today,” John Henry told Kat before getting down on one knee. “My heart’s telling me that you are amazing, you are what I’m looking for. I really do see a future with you and I’m not falling in love, I am in love with you too. That being said, Kat, will you marry me?”
Less than a week after the Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 finale, however, Kat and John Henry announced that they had already ended their engagement. Now, Kat is back on Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 in hopes of finding The One for the second time. But for those who haven’t been following her journey off-screen, you may be wondering why Kat and John Henry broke up in the first place? Read on for their respective stories on their split and whether they line up.
Why did Kat and John Henry break up from Bachelor in Paradise?
Kat and John Henry announced their split in a joint Instagram post on December 11, 2023, four days after the Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 finale. “With mutual love and respect, Kat and I have recently decided to part ways. Our relationship has been filled with wonderful memories and growth, something we looked forward to sharing with you. While our paths are taking different directions due to our career goals not aligning, we are grateful for the love and support we’ve received from our family, friends, and Bachelor Nation,” the post read. “While this decision wasn’t easy, we believe it’s the right step for both of us as individuals. As we navigate this transition, we ask for your continued support and respect for our privacy.”
In an interview on the “Almost Famous” podcast in April 2024, John Henry revealed that he and Kat split due to his job as a commercial diver and underwater welder. “I told her, as of right now, my career is not relationship friendly. She knew that. But I was like, my plan is to get out of it anyways,” John Henry said, explaining that he “bounced around a ton” for the job.
After Bachelor in Paradise Season 9, Kat, a travel nurse, even moved to North Carolina to be closer to John Henry, who’s from Wilmington, even though her goal was to live in San Diego. “Things were going really well. Now, I have this job and then I get in this relationship. Then now it’s like, OK, I have to start figuring out what I’m going to do, how I’m going to make this transition to a career that is going to be a lot easier for me and her to work with,” he said. “It just caught me by surprise. Now I’m starting to stress out about how I’m going to make this move.”
He continued, “So, I started to have my doubts. Then, I started to see our differences a lot more. So, things just really got hard for me.” He explained that eventually, their differences became too much, and he decided to end their engagement.
“It got to a point where it was just extremely hard for the both of us. Then basically, I called it quits,” he said. “I said, this doesn’t feel right. I think this should be a lot easier than what it is, and it just, it wasn’t the case. … I just started thinking to myself, maybe this just isn’t for me. Once I got that in my head, it just kind of spiraled from there.”
While Kat was “shocked” by John Henry’s decision to break up, he claimed that they don’t have any bad blood between them. “Kat is amazing. She really is something special. She’s not my longest relationship, but Kat’s a catch,” he said. “I’ll tell you, she definitely did her part. Distance is hard for everybody. … When she loves, she gives it her all, and she did everything that she needed to do and then some in order to try to make our relationship work.”
Kat, for her part, explained her side of the breakup in an interview with “Bachelor Happy Hour” in July 2025, in which she also confirmed that she and John Henry split due to his job and long distance.
“There was nothing serious that happened. Through the airing of the show, we started to learn more about how we each handle conflict and adversity. It was not my choice, but it ended ultimately being something probably for the best,” she said. “It was under the umbrella of incompatibility. But we didn’t have any major fights or anything like that. I think it just got too much. He wanted to do go into a different career path than we both originally thought he wanted to do, which ultimately led him to Hawaii.”
She continued, “It happened at a really hard time emotionally with everything else that was going on, but overall, we’re two good people, but we’re definitely not each other’s people. I think moments like how the show aired and how everything went down in our relationship, it really showed us what you can handle and whether you can be compatible long term.”
She also confirmed that she fully believed she and John Henry would get married after their engagement.
“I believed everything. I literally was like, ‘This is my person.’ Now looking back, I’m like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I was a very different person,” she said. “I think I wanted a relationship so badly. I saw that for myself. I was willing to believe anything, even though there were signs in front of me saying this is not going to make sense. I think it took something as extreme as that for me to really sit back and evaluate how I see people and I see the world. Now I tread a bit lighter. But I fully believed that we were in.”
Bachelor in Paradise streams on Hulu.
