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 collection obtained a report variety of submissions for contestants. Among the 38 girls who had the chance to satisfy Matt was Rachael, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Georgia. While she didn’t obtain the coveted first impression rose (Abigail Heringer did), she caught Matt’s eye on evening one. (Season 25 of The Bachelor filmed at Nemacolin Resort within the fall of 2020 and premiered in January.)
“She was beautiful, wow,” he stated after she walked out of the limo.
After a number of group dates, Rachael scored one-on-one time with Matt in the course of the February 1 episode of the present. During the night portion of the date, the pair revealed they had been falling in love with each other.
“Night one, what she chose to use her time with me to speak about was very intentional. And it wasn’t something that wasn’t going to progress our relationship,” Matt stated of Rachael on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast on February 2. “And then when I saw on the first group date, and I’m referring to all these instances that aren’t one-on-ones, because that was how our relationship was lived out, you know, I hadn’t had that one-on-one time with her yet. And when I had that day to spend with her and really get to know her better, it just affirmed everything I had already felt.”
While Matt and Rachael had been dropping L-bombs on the collection, she was making headlines for her previous racially insensitive actions, together with photographs of her at an “Old South”-themed frat get together 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 underneath fireplace. Rachael’s mom, Kim Kirkconnell, additionally defended her daughter and hinted at how the state of affairs would possibly have an effect on their potential comfortable ending.
“If he chooses Rachael, and stands by her, then you know Matt does truly love her,” Kim advised The Sun on February 25. “If he chooses Rachael, and then leaves her, then it was not meant to be, and there is someone else out there for her.”
During The Bachelor: After the Final Rose on Monday, March 15, followers discovered that Matt and Rachael referred to 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 strain they really feel from Bachelor Nation to get engaged.
“We’re in a great place,” she stated that September at New York Fashion Week. “We just needed to take that time away from everyone and really figure everything out, and I think that we were just so sick of the outside noise and we were like, ‘You know what? We need to just put all of that aside and really focus on our relationship and how we feel about each other and nothing else.’ It’s been so incredible.”
Scroll by for an entire timeline of Matt and Rachael’s relationship:
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