The Truth to Rumors Bachelor in Paradise’s Kat Had a Secret Boyfriend While Filming & if She’s Still With Dale
Jason Pham
Warning: Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 spoilers ahead. Just when the Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 finale couldn’t get more dramatic, Kat faced accusations that she had a secret boyfriend all throughout filming, whom she communicated with via an iPad she snuck onto the set.
Kat Izzo, a 28-year-old from San Diego, California, was one of 30 contestants on Bachelor in Paradise Season 10. She originally appeared on The Bachelor Season 27 with Zach Shallcross, where she came in fifth place, and Bachelor in Paradise Season 9, where she left engaged to John Henry Spurlock. (They split less than a year later.)
During Bachelor in Paradise Season 10, Kat coupled up with Dale Moss, the winner from The Bachelorette Season 16 with Clare Crawley. (Dale and Clare dated on and off for more than a year before splitting in September 2021.) Kat and Dale exchanged roses at the first Rose Ceremony and stayed together until the Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 finale, when all alleged hell broke loose with rumors she had a secret boyfriend that she was communicating with throughout the entirety of filming.
Related: All the couples who are still together from Bachelor in Paradise Season 10?
Kat was first accused of having a boyfriend while filming Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 when Reality Steve reported that Sean McLaughlin, whom she starred with on both Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 and 10, confronted her about the claims during the finale.
“In the finale, Sean confronts Kat and accuses her of coming on the show with a boyfriend, using the show for clout, and alleging that she contacted him somehow during filming,” Reality Steve reported. Reality Steve also confirmed that Kat and Dale have since moved on from the drama, much like Jeremy Simon and Bailey Brown, who are also still together after their love triangle with Susie Evans.
“Kinda like the Jeremy/Bailey situation where we know they’re together now, so trying to understand everything that happened in Costa Rica and why everything seemed to be swept under the rug, is kinda the same situation here with Kat,” Reality Steve wrote. “I have no idea what’s true about Sean’s allegations and what isn’t. But we know that Kat & Dale are still together. So they’ve seemingly moved past whatever happened during the finale.”
Who was Kat’s boyfriend from before Bachelor in Paradise Season 10?
While Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 didn’t specify who Kat’s boyfriend was before the show, she was last in a relationship with Zac Cooper, whom she started dating months after her split from ex-fiance, John Henry Spurlock. “Just as surprised as you are :),” Kat wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post in July 2025 along with pictures with Zac. “I approve x1000 welcome to the looney toon fam @zaccopper,” Season 20 Bachelorette Charity Lawson commented. Kat’s Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 costar Kylee Russell added, “Love every part of this for you 😭😭😭.”
“We officially, I guess, made it official in June,” Kat told Us Weekly in September 2024 of her relationship with Zac. “So it’s still early, but we’ve just spent so much time together and have grown so close within those times. So it’s been great.”
Kat also noted that Zac is from her hometown in Florida, which made the holidays “so easy.” She also explained that the two are “really similar.” When asked whether an engagement could be in the future, Kat shared that she and Zac were “taking things very slow.”
“I’ve been so focused on my healing journey and my career,” she said. “It’s as cliche as it sounds, when you’re not looking, someone truly comes into your life. I think I was pouring so much into myself, from a healthy way, that that’s when God or the universe let’s people in that align with you.”
Allyshia Gupta, who left Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 with Sean, also echoed the allegations in an interview on “The Viall Files” in August 2025, in which she accused Kat of sneaking an iPad onto the set of Bachelor in Paradise and communicating with her alleged boyfriend offscreen. During the interview, Alllyshia claimed that she and Sean had a “conversation” with Sean’s best friend in Tampa, Florida, who was Kat’s alleged secret boyfriend.
“Her boyfriend at the time, he’s like, ‘You won’t believe who ended up screwing me over.’ He fills us in [and] she’s been sending him love letters since day one in Paradise,” Allyshia said, calling Kat “not an honest person.” “She snuck her iPad in, she was sending things to get him through, like, ‘This will last you until I get back out of Paradise,’ and, like, that’s crazy.”
Host Nick Viall, for his part, also confirmed that he heard rumors about Kat’s alleged communication with an offscreen boyfriend after he ran into a friend who “had some things to say about Kat.” “I heard she somehow wrote some messages on her arm for him,” he said. Allyshia ended her conversation about Kat by making clear that she “wouldn’t pick Kat” as someone she would ever spend time with off-camera. “She doesn’t tell the truth,” Allyshia said.
Other than Allyshia’s claim that Kat’s alleged boyfriend is a best friend of Sean’s from Tampa, Florida, not much has been confirmed about his identity, though the ex in question is widely believed to be Zac. Before Kat’s relationship with Dale, she was engaged to John Henry from The Bachelorette Season 21 with Charity Lawson. Kat and John Henry got engaged in the Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 finale before splitting four days after the finale aired.
“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,” John Henry wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “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.”
Kat, for her part, explained her side of the breakup in an interview with “Bachelor Happy Hour” in July 2025, in which she 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.
