The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston has revealed that Ananda Lewis' death has sent her "spiraling" amid her own battle with Stage 4 breast cancer.

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Katie, 34, recently opened up about how Ananda's passing has affected her on her Instagram's "Boobie Broadcast" channel, according to the New York Post.

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Ananda, a 1990s MTV and BET personality and former talk show host, died at age 52 earlier this month following a lengthy battle with Stage 4 breast cancer.

"Currently more accepting about my diagnosis," Katie reportedly said this past weekend.

"Although the passing of fellow sister Ananda Lewis had me spiraling for a day."

Katie added, "I've mostly kept busy and my mind distracted, which has helped A TON."

Ananda first announced that she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer via Instagram in October 2020. At the time, she said she had been diagnosed two years earlier.

Ananda reportedly said she skipped regular mammogram testing because she was worried about the radiation in her body.

The broadcast journalist later appeared on CNN in October 2024 to announce that her breast cancer had metastasized and progressed to Stage 4.

Ananda admitted she chose not to have a double mastectomy against her doctor's wishes.

"My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body. I felt like my body is intelligent, I know that to be true. Our bodies are brilliantly made," Ananda said at the time, according to The Post.

"I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way. I wish I could go back. It's important for me to admit where I went wrong with this."

Katie, on the other hand, has taken a completely different approach to treat her cancer.

Katie, in fact, shared on her channel how she "can't wait" to take action and get her tumor removed.

"A holistic approach takes such extreme discipline that I don't even have," The Bachelorette alum confessed.

"I have made lifestyle changes (and working on more), but while pairing with my medications."

She elaborated, "I think that's what scares me about mine -- [the tumor] is still in me too. I can't wait to get a double mastectomy."

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Katie shared earlier this month how she felt like she was losing her memory and hair while undergoing treatment for stage 4 breast cancer.

"I just finished my second month of treatment, and if you're asking how long treatment is -- technically forever," Katie said while wearing a baseball cap and T-shirt.

"I am optimistic about medical advancements in the future. Fingers crossed as a stage 4 girly. But right now, after finishing two months of my medication, my hair is coming out in an unnatural amount of clumps. I'm working on that."

Katie continued: "I'm losing my memory, that's great. Going through customs and them being like, 'Where are you coming from?' And I looked at him and I was like, 'I don't remember. I don't remember.'"

Katie also recalled having no argument when bickering with her husband Jeff Arcuri about something.

Katie, appearing a little upset and deflated, vented about how "cancer is sh-t."

"Sometimes I'm like, 'Stop feeling bad for yourself,'" she noted. "But then other times, I'm like, 'No, you're allowed to feel bad for yourself. Cancer f-cking sucks.'"

Katie also explained in her candid video how she decided to treat the cancer that spread to her liver with Histotripsy at NYU instead of undergoing radiation or ablation.

Histotripsy is a non-invasive technology that uses focused ultrasound energy to destroy liver tumors.

After sharing that she entered medically induced menopause in May, Katie said she needed to switch to a new medication -- after the first one "didn't work" -- to suppress her hormones and ovaries.

"I got my period. That's not supposed to happen... and if [my new medication] doesn't work, I'm going to have to get my ovaries taken out. Not ideal," Katie told her followers.

But she added, "I'm trying to live my best life as a f-cking cancer patient. Sorry, I'm not going to edit that out... I want this to be my truth, I guess."

Katie shared in April how, because she's HER2 positive, she planned to undergo an alternative treatment plan for her cancer.

"I now have the option to do hormone-blocking therapy instead of chemotherapy," she explained at the time.

"I'll be taking a drug called Kisqali, which is a targeted oral therapy, Letrozole, which is an anti-estrogen pill, and Zoladex, which is a once-a-month shot which will shut down my ovaries and help reduce estrogen."

Katie called her treatment plan "a cookbook of recipes to help fight this," and she added, "The approach we're going to be taking is going to give me the best chance at long-term control with less side effects."

However, Katie wrote in the caption of her April post how chemotherapy is not completely off the table yet if the cancer grows again.

Katie revealed her cancer had spread to her liver in late March, just one month after she had publicly announced her battle with breast cancer.

"I had a small lump in my breast... I discovered it myself," Katie wrote via Instagram Stories in February.

"[I] thought maybe it was my period [or] maybe it was muscle soreness from working out. But, eventually, this lump never went away."

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When the lump remained for several months, Katie decided to visit her doctor for a mammogram, which ultimately indicated the presence of cancerous tissue.

Following her diagnosis, Katie sought fertility treatments so that she and Jeff can welcome children one day. She also got married on March 22 in an intimate backyard wedding.

Katie said she and Jeff will have a bigger wedding, complete with personalized vows, after she beats cancer.

"It was this kind gesture of him saying, truly, in sickness and in health," Katie gushed to Us Weekly earlier this year.

"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."

Jeff apparently thought there would be more power to calling Katie his "wife" rather than "girlfriend" in a hospital setting.

Katie, who competed on Matt James' The Bachelor season before starring on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season, saw Jeff for the first time in March 2024 on Instagram and sent her friend a video clip of one of his standup acts. Katie told her friend that Jeff was going to be her "future husband."

After talking on the phone for three to six hours daily, Katie and Jeff met in person for the first time in Los Angeles in early May 2024. The pair then  in August 2024.

Katie added how Jeff's humor helps her and he's been to "every single appointment" with her thus far and administered all of her IVF shots.

"[Chemotherapy] does raise the risk of you not being able to conceive. Knowing that we wanted kids in the future, we thought, 'Okay, let's do IVF just to have that option.' We dedicated two weeks before doing anything else breast cancer wise to doing IVF," Katie previously shared.

"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."

Prior to falling in love with Jeff, Katie had a short-lived engagement to her The Bachelorette 17 winner Blake Moynes.

Katie's The Bachelorette season ended on ABC in August 2021, and then she and Blake -- a Canadian wildlife specialist -- announced their breakup only a couple of months later in October 2021.

Katie then went public with her romance with John Hersey, whom she had eliminated during Week 2 of her The Bachelorette journey, in November 2021. She was accused of moving on from Blake quickly with "a rebound" and emotionally cheating on her ex-fiance.

Katie and John split after less than one year together in June 2022, and Katie expressed on numerous occasions how John had dumped her after she allegedly gave the relationship everything she had.

After ending her relationship with John, Katie made a cameo on Bachelor in Paradise's ninth season in 2023 and found closure with Blake, who remained her friend post-show.

Katie then she decided to pursue a unique opportunity and look for love on FBoy Island.

Katie had a brief public relationship with FBoy Island's Vince Xu, but Katie announced their breakup in December 2023.

Katie then soft launched her relationship with Jeff in January 2024 when she was asked to give dating advice on Instagram, but she didn't reveal she was officially dating Jeff until June of last year.

Katie had announced at the time: "Safe to say he's making it to hometowns next week," which was a nod to her prior The Bachelorette stint in 2021.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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