Rachael Kirkconnell wants to make it crystal clear that her boyfriend, former Bachelor Matt James, is not available.
Rachael was shocked and offended (as any woman would be) when her boyfriend was playing in a charity basketball game recently and a sports announcer repeatedly declared that Matt is single and ready to mingle, as reported by Page Six.
“Anytime Matt would do something, announcer: ‘Ladies, he’s single,'” Rachael wrote over a video clip of the basketball match posted to her Instagram Story. Not cool.
“like what?!!?!” the graphic designer continued. “literally a good 10 times.”
Keep up, Mr. Sports Announcer! Rachael and Matt have been dating since she competed on Season 25 of The Bachelor (following a brief estrangement immediately following the season — read on below for details).
While they appear to be going strong now, the couple’s relationship hasn’t always been drama-free.
Rachael received Matt‘s Final Rose in the Bachelor season finale, but by the time the episode aired, photos had surfaced of her dressed for an antebellum plantation-themed party in college that celebrated the “Old South.”
Critics accused Rachael of racist behavior, and Matt broke off their relationship.
The controversy escalated when the show’s longtime host Chris Harrison minimized Rachael’s participation in the questionable event in an interview and was subsequently fired from his job of almost 20 years.
But during the After The Final Rose special the following month, Matt admitted that he and Rachael still had feelings for each other.
“We didn’t know what to do with them,” Matt later wrote in his book First Impressions. “We decided to keep talking, to be open to our love building back.”
Rachael publicly apologized for her mistakes in a February 2021 Instagram video, and the couple ultimately reunited.
Believing that Rachael had “done the self-work,” Matt decided to also “be better going forward,” the Wake Forest graduate wrote.
“She had done self-work that I hadn’t reciprocated,” he added. “I promised her that I was all in. It was the best decision I could have made. I changed. I grew. I learned about myself, my past trauma, and my capacity for love.”
While the couple reunited in April 2021, they waited three months to make their public return at the ESPY Awards. (From Wikipedia, the ESPYs or “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award[s] . . . recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performances during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony.”)
Since rekindling their love, Rachael and Matt have been traveling and showing lots of PDA.
TELL US- DO YOU THINK RACHAEL AND MATT WILL STAY TOGETHER? DO YOU THINK MATT WAS RIGHT TO TAKE RACHAEL BACK FOLLOWING THEIR BREAKUP?
[Photo Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Idol Roc]
