Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell caused quite a stir in Bachelor Nation back in 2020, when a racism scandal rocked The Bachelor’s 25th season — its first to feature a Black lead. Despite the “devastating” revelations of Kirkconnell’s past and a controversial interview that resulted in host Chris Harrison stepping away from the franchise, James and Kirkconnell remained one of Bachelor Nation’s longest-lasting couples for the better part of five years — until now. The former football player announced January 16 that he and Kirkconnell decided to “end our relationship,” causing a frenzy amongst fans, as the announcement came just hours after a video showed the couple vacationing together.
Days ahead of The Bachelor Season 29 premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, rumors are flying on social media after Matt James sent up a prayer to mend his and Rachael Kirkconnell’s broken hearts in a somber breakup post that included an image from The Bachelor. He wrote:
Father God, give Rachael and I strength to mend our broken hearts. 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 💔
Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell kept a pretty low profile after all the drama that ensued on The Bachelor, but given how long they were together — and the obstacles they’d overcome at the start of their relationship — much of Bachelor Nation has long had them pegged as endgame. If the breakup alone wasn’t enough to shock fans, consider the fact that it came just hours after this video of James and Kirkconnell eating pizza together in London:
Is it possible that the pizza video and other posts from their London trip were taken a while ago, and that Matt James had to his fulfill sponsorship agreements before announcing the breakup? Whatever the circumstances, Bachelor Nation had thoughts — some of them quite amusing — as they speculated in the comments section:
- Did we skip to Aprils fools day?! – skylar.michaelis
- How bad was the pizza? – sara.eats.world
- Y’all was just eating pizza together?!? Just get some hot wings and tell her you are sorry 😟 – optimistjay19
- Wait I feel like this is sketch. I can’t believe the break up. Something is happening. – ezahbellahh
Breakups in Bachelor Nation aren’t exactly unusual, so it’s pretty wild to see fans expressing such disbelief over this one. In fact, Rachael Kirkconnell and Matt James’ split seemed so unlikely that many were asking on posts on both of their pages if the ex-Bachelor was possibly hacked. They said:
- It’s so weird. I wonder if he got hacked – lexiii413
- With all due respect, the math ain’t mathing on this one Matt … have you been hacked? – jordannleitnerr
- What is happening was he hacked?? Are you really over ?!?!?? – xoxamyyyy
- He was definitely hacked – mrsdsteve
- I was wondering if he was hacked too!! – stahl_karen
Fans may be suspicious of the timing of the post, but hours after the breakup news started to circulate, neither Matt James nor Rachael Kirkconnell had spoken out with any additional clarity. In fact, the last post on Kirkconnell’s Instagram is a photo from five weeks ago celebrating her partner’s birthday.
Many are sad to see this Bachelor success story come to an end, but I, for one, am ready to watch the dating franchise’s next attempt. Grant Ellis’ season of The Bachelor premieres at 8 p.m. ET Monday, January 27, on ABC and can be streamed the next day with a Hulu subscription.
