Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell have called it quits.
James announced their split in an Instagram post, alongside an old photo of them together.
“Father God, give Rachael and I strength to mend our broken hearts,” he wrote. “Give us 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.”
James—now a food and fitness influencer—turned the comments off on the post. Just hours before, on Wednesday, he posted an IG reel of him and Kirkconnell eating pizza in London.
From his IG Story, it appears that the post from London isn't old.
The former couple were together for four years after first meeting on The Bachelor in 2021. According to TMZ, the news was sudden after James teased an impending engagement in October.
The pair have had their ups and downs. In 2021, Matt and Rachael made headlines when he dumped her after old photos surfaced, which showed her exhibiting racist behavior. Before the final rose ceremony aired, photos of Kirkconnell with a Confederate flag and pro-Trump insignia and at a college ‘antebellum’ party made the rounds online.
While James gave Kirkconnell his final rose, he didn’t propose, sharing that he wasn’t ready to engage. James said they broke up after the show on The Bachelor: After the Final Rose when he found out the photographs were true.
“As someone who grew up in the South, it takes me to a place that I often try not to think about,” James said at the time. “When she spoke out and publicly acknowledged that she would do better and she apologized, is when I was finally able to take a check on myself and see where I was at, and I wasn’t OK. It was in that moment and the conversation that I had that—Rachael might not understand what it means to be Black in America.”
James was the first Black Bachelor in the reality show’s then-19-year run. Kirkconnell hasn’t yet spoken about their break up.