Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell are reportedly still dating despite having initially broken up after his season of The Bachelor ended. Matt's season was a roller-coaster ride when it came to some of the women who were cast on the show. For weeks, certain contestants were accused of bullying their co-stars, lying to Matt's face, and trying to steal the spotlight at any cost. In the end, even the winner of the season, Rachael Kirkconnell, had to face accusations regarding her racist past, which she eventually tried to apologize for.
After the accusations against Rachael were legitimized by her apologies, Matt James immediately broke up with her, reportedly because he couldn't deal with the things she had done. Host Chris Harrison also had to step aside from filming the season's After The Final Rose special after he tried to defend Rachael's past behavior. Eventually, this would lead to the effective firing of Chris Harrison from the show. When Matt James' season finally finished airing on ABC, the season 25 lead went on a social media hiatus that included a few cryptic messages. Matt came back shortly after, but he deleted any The Bachelor tie-ins from his Instagram bio.
Now, established reality TV blogger Reality Steve is reporting that the relationship between Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell is not exactly over yet. Reality Steve wrote the following in his latest tweet (included below): "It's been a while but here's some news: Matt and Rachael? Yeah, they're not over." If that weren't enough, the blogger also included some specificity to his report, writing: "They're currently in New York together." This will definitely shock a significant portion of Bachelor Nation that felt like there was no coming back for these two.
While shocking, this latest report feels similar to the recent spottings of Clare Crawley and Dale Moss after their reported breakup following The Bachelorette season 16. While Clare and Dale's relationship status is still unknown, they constantly tag each other on Instagram posts and have been spotted in several places together, with rumors that they were even shopping for a house together. Reality Steve's scoop could be the first sign of reconciliation between Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell, but only time will tell how that will go.
When it comes to the post-season phase of Matt James' season of The Bachelor, the fans are learning to expect the unexpected. It seemed very unlikely that Matt and Rachael would ever recover from their breakup due to the reasons that led up to it, but the media and the fans don't have access to the one-on-one conversations these two have likely had since that controversy.
Sources: Reality Steve