Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell’s Bachelor love story has been a journey — on and off display.
ABC named the 29-year-old Wake Forest graduate the season 25 lead in June 2020, subsequently revealing that the sequence acquired a document variety of submissions for contestants. Among the many 38 girls who had the chance to fulfill Matt was Rachael, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Georgia. Whereas she didn’t obtain the coveted first impression rose (Abigail Heringer did), she caught Matt’s eye on night time one. (Season 25 of The Bachelor filmed at Nemacolin Resort within the fall of 2020 and premiered in January.)
“She was stunning, wow,” he stated after she walked out of the limo.
After a number of group dates, Rachael scored one-on-one time with Matt through the February 1 episode of the present. Through the night portion of the date, the pair revealed they had been falling in love with each other.
“Evening one, what she selected to make use of her time with me to discuss was very intentional. And it wasn’t one thing that wasn’t going to progress our relationship,” Matt stated of Rachael on Us Weekly’s “Right here for the Proper Causes” podcast on February 2. “After which after I noticed on the primary group date, and I’m referring to all these cases that aren’t one-on-ones, as a result of that was how our relationship was lived out, you recognize, I hadn’t had that one-on-one time along with her but. And after I had that day to spend along with her and actually get to know her higher, it simply affirmed the whole lot I had already felt.”
Whereas Matt and Rachael had been dropping L-bombs on the sequence, she was making headlines for her previous racially insensitive actions, together with images of her at an “Outdated South”-themed frat celebration in 2018. The controversy escalated after Chris Harrison requested for followers to have “grace” for Rachael as they navigated the scandal. The Georgia native broke her silence on February 11, two days after the host’s interview and a couple of month since she initially got here beneath hearth. Rachael’s mom, Kim Kirkconnell, additionally defended her daughter and hinted at how the scenario would possibly have an effect on their potential pleased ending.
“If he chooses Rachael, and stands by her, then you recognize Matt does actually love her,” Kim instructed The Solar on February 25. “If he chooses Rachael, after which leaves her, then it was not meant to be, and there’s another person on the market for her.”
Throughout The Bachelor: After the Remaining Rose on Monday, March 15, followers discovered that Matt and Rachael known as it quits whereas the present was airing.
Months after getting again collectively in April 2021, Rachael gave Us Weekly an unique replace on their romance — and the stress they really feel from Bachelor Nation to get engaged.
“We’re in an important place,” she stated that September at New York Trend Week. “We simply wanted to take that point away from everybody and actually determine the whole lot out, and I believe that we had been simply so sick of the skin noise and we had been like, ‘You recognize what? We have to simply put all of that apart and actually concentrate on our relationship and the way we really feel about one another and nothing else.’ It’s been so unimaginable.”
Scroll by way of for an entire timeline of Matt and Rachael’s relationship:
