Entertainment
The Bachelor 2021: Are Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell still together?
Matt James’ season finale saw him give his final rose to Rachael Kirkconnell, but the pair’s relationship hasn’t gone as planned.
Indeed, season 25 has been marred by racism controversies thanks to events that happened after filming took place.
However, the show saw Rachael crowned as the winner after the reality dating show’s first-ever Black lead finally found love.
Here’s how things ended up playing out between the pair…
Did Matt James propose to Rachael Kirkconnell?
Nope – while Matt did declare his feeling for Rachael, he wasn’t ready to propose at the end of the show.
He told her in the finale: ‘Everything that I came here looking for, I found with you… I wanna be everything to you. I wanna be everything for you that my dad wasn’t to my mom.
‘As I’m wrestling with what I’m gonna do today, the easy thing for me to do would be to brush those feelings and emotions off and make you happy, and that’s to propose to you today. But I couldn’t live with myself if I put you through what my mom’s been through. I’ve seen what rushing into a proposal, a marriage, can do in my family, and it’s ugly, and it’s not something that I want for you or for us. That’s why I can’t propose to you today.’
The reality star continued: ‘That doesn’t mean I wanna lose you. When I think about the life I wanna live, I think about living that life with you. I wanna leave here with you, and I wanna commit to you and to every day building on what we started here. The truth is that I love you. I’m in love with you, and I do see you as my wife. I see you as the mother of my kids. I see those kids being crazy. I just wanna make sure my love is enough for you.’
Why did Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell split?
Sadly, the relationship didn’t last very long as racially insensitive actions from Rachael’s past were discovered by fans.
The reality star was accused of bullying a former schoolmate for dating a black guy, she had liked social media posts which saw her friends posing with Maga hats and confederate flags, and she also attended an Old South Antebellum-style fraternity party in 2018.
Matt explained to guest host Emmanuel Acho on the show’s After The Rose Special that he had initially ‘tried to be there’ for Rachael when posts about her hit social media – which she has since apologized for.
‘You hear things that are heartbreaking and you just pray they’re not true,’ he said. ‘And when you find out that they are it just makes you question everything. It’s heartbreaking and it’s devastating. It’s just disappointing.’
Matt explained: ‘The most disappointing thing for me was having to explain to you why what I saw was problematic and why I was so upset.
He added that when he questioned the relationship, ‘it was in the context of you not fully understanding my Blackness and what it means to be a Black man in America, and what it would mean for our kids when I saw those things that were floating around the internet.
‘And I wasn’t okay, because it was in that moment and the conversation that I had that Rachael might not understand what it means to be Black in America.’
Matt said he has chosen to give her space to educate herself as he added: ‘As Rachael acknowledged in her apology, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. I have to take a step back and allow her to put in that work. And I’m looking forward to seeing her put in that work.’
He acknowledged that their split was ‘as tough as you could imagine’, adding: ‘If you don’t understand that something like that is problematic in 2018, there’s a lot of me that you won’t understand. And it’s as simple as that.’
Are Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell getting back together?
Doesn’t look like it, for now. Who knows what the future might hold for the pair, but it looks like they won’t be reconciling anytime soon.
Rachael still remains hopeful as she stated on Instagram: ‘I knew from the first night I met Matt that he was something special, and I was praying to share something exceptional between the two of us if that’s what was meant to be. while i never expected this outcome, I respect his decision completely.
‘Of course I wish circumstances were different, but i still feel blessed for the time we did have together and the memories we made. I got to fall in love, and i truly believe he was the love of my life. He will always hold a piece of my heart. I’ll always be hopeful and believe what’s meant to be will be.’
The Bachelor airs on ABC in the US and is available to stream on hayu in the UK.
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