Another Bachelor couple called it quits! Season 16 Bachelor Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell broke up four years after they were paired up on the reality dating show.
Matt James dropped the ball on his Instagram. He captioned a post featuring a picture of them together when they were on the show in 2021. “Father God, give Rachael and I strength to mend our broken hearts,” he wrote. “Give us a peace about this decision to end our relationship that transcends worldly understanding. Shower our friends and family with kindness and love to comfort us. And remind us that our Joy comes from you, Lord 💔”
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Just hours before he posted about the breakup, Matt James took a video at Crisp Pizza W6, a new hotspot in London with Rachael.
Why did Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell break up?
Rachael Kirkconnell explained that the two were fighting while they were on a trip together in Tokyo. “I guess it almost seemed like saying it like a prayer was the easier way to say it than to say something real,” she said on Call Her Daddy. ” Not that it wasn’t real, but just something authentic to our actual relationship, but it’s very him.”
“He said that at the end of the day there were just qualities about me that he worries about having in a wife. Like at the end of the day, like, there are things that we aren’t compatible with…” Kirkconnell said.
She added, “And yeah, it was just one of those things where I think just had this realization that I should want to propose to you by this time. Like, at this point in our relationship, I should be wanting those things and I should be ready for that. But I’m not still, I still don’t feel like we’re ready or I don’t feel like I’m ready. I don’t know if I ever see myself proposing to you. I can’t actually see myself married to you. He said that, you know, maybe one day he would get there, but he doesn’t feel ready now.”
“I don’t know if it was out of just him being so worked up, if it was out of anger, or if it was one of those things where he felt like he needed to do it to really finally just put a nail in the coffin, but I have spoken with him since all of that, and I do know that he definitely acknowledges that that was not the right decision,” Kirkconnell said.
She added, “I don’t want people thinking that, like, he’s this bad guy or that he’s like not, I don’t know, considerate of my feelings or whatever, ’cause he is a good guy at the end of the day.”
She noted that Matt James posted the breakup post “two or three hours after” they had privately called it quits while on a trip together in Tokyo. “I guess it almost seemed like saying it like a prayer was the easier way to say it than to say something real. Not that it wasn’t real, but just something authentic to our actual relationship, but it’s very him.”
Things were headed in a great direction with Matt and Rachael, with the two considering getting engaged soon. On an October 2024 episode of the “De-Influenced With Dani + Jordan” podcast, Matt said that engagement would be “the next step.” “Having had so many of Rachael’s friends go through engagements, I wouldn’t dare go look at a ring without consulting Rachael first.”
Rachael agreed, “I feel that’s definitely something we want. I’m on his time,” she shared. “My problem is I definitely need to go find a ring I like and everything, but that’s on him at that point. … That’s a problem, I don’t even know what I want.”
The two previously broke up after it was discovered that Rachael participated in an Antebellum plantation-themed party when she was in college. Rachael apologized for her racial insensitivity and the two reconciled. “It’s not Matt’s job to educate me,” she said. Children need to be educated about their Black history and what society will think of them … and like I said it’s not his job to educate me on that, so I think it’s good to take time to yourself and try and educate yourself on interracial relationships.”
