As expected, Matt James ended up with Rachael Kirkconnell on the Season 25 finale of The Bachelor on Monday night, but their relationship appears to have been short-lived after James revealed the couple split shortly after they left the set.
The final break up came after racially insensitive photos of Rachael were released on social media.
Speaking to ABC on After The Final Rose on Monday night he explained that the episode made him reconsider how he viewed her.
‘You wanna believe that you know your person better than anybody else knows your person. This controversy swirling around who Rachael is and events she might’ve attended, pictures that she liked and people that she’s associated with.
‘I’m trying to be there for her, and I dismissed them as rumors, because that’s what they were to me. You hear things that are heartbreaking and you just pray they’re not true. And then, when you find out that they are it just makes you question everything,’ he added.
Earlier, viewers saw James make a break from tradition in deciding not to propose to the 24-year-old graphic designer, despite saying he was ‘in love’ with her.
When it came time for him to pop the question, Matt, 29, explained that he was more concerned with their life together than a rushed engagement.
‘Everything that I came here looking for, I found with you,’ he told the Cumming, Georgia, native. ‘But I’ve seen what rushing into a proposal and marriage can do in my family, and it’s ugly. It’s not something that I want for you. Or for us. That’s why I can’t propose to you today.’
Season finale: Matt James declined to propose to finalist Rachael Kirkconnell who was embroiled in a racism controversy during the season finale Monday of The Bachelor, but gave her his final rose
Matt had often spoken this season of the devastation wrought on him by his parents’ divorce and infidelities, and the memory of it tortured him.
Rachael nodded reassuringly as he added, ‘That doesn’t mean I want to lose you. When I think about the life I wanna live, I think about living that life with you.’
‘I’m in love with you, and I do see you as my wife,’ Matt said. ‘I see you as the mother of my kids, and I see those kids being crazy. I just wanna make sure my love is enough for you.’
‘Of course it is,’ Rachael said, as they embraced. ‘Of course it is.’
Tough decision: The 29-year-old businessman wrestled with his decision until the very end before offering Rachael, 24, his final rose but without a proposal
‘There’s one more thing,’ Matt said, laughing. ‘Rachael, will you accept this rose?’
‘Yes,’ she said, kissing him.
Matt had made one other unorthodox choice during the episode, saying an early goodbye to fan favorite Michelle Young, 27, an elementary school teacher from Edina, Minnesota.
Instead of waiting until it was time for the proposals, Matt bade her goodbye after their last date.
In a deeply uncomfortable moment, he told Michelle that he’d been having doubts about her, and had tried to push through them unsuccessfully.
‘I just want clarity,’ Michelle said, trying not to cry. ‘Am I supposed to fight for you? Am I not supposed to fight for you? Tell me where you’re at, actually.’
No ring: ‘I’ve seen what rushing into a proposal, a marriage, can do in my family. …And it’s ugly, and it’s not something that I want for you for for us. …And that’s why I can’t propose to you today,’ Matt told Rachael
‘I don’t think I can get there with you,’ Matt shared.
Michelle had already won over Matt’s mother Patty and older brother John, who had met her earlier in the episode and admired how genuine she was.
Patty loved the teacher’s warmth and the fact that she came from a close-knit family.
‘Talking to you Michelle, I see you’re a sweetheart,’ Matt’s mom said, wiping her eyes.
When she met Rachael, Patty also saw how taken with her Matt was, and liked how honest the couple was with each other.
Rachael said she’d known right away that Matt was the one for her, as he’d prayed over the show’s contestants as the season began.
‘I truly felt it in my soul,’ she told a weeping Patty. ‘I really thought that I was supposed to be here for Matt, and this was God’s way of putting us together.’
Riding off: Matt and Rachael then rode off together in a white, horse-drawn carriage
After the women left, Patty grew cynical, and cautioned Matt to take his time proposing to anyone.
‘People fall in and out of love,’ she warned. ‘Love is not the end-all, be-all.’
John agreed, adding, ‘Don’t feel like you have to jump into making a decision where you’re not ready.’
Matt’s face fell as he realized his family might not be on board with the idea.
In a confessional, the bachelor said, ‘I’m about to make one of the most important decisions of my life. And the assurance I was looking for in those conversations was replaced with some doubt. This is the final week, and here I am questioning: Am I ready?’
He admitted his fears to show host Chris Harrison, 49, that afternoon.
Matt said it was the look on Patty’s face that had gotten to him; he realized she was recalling ‘how feelings faded with her and my dad.’
‘The more information that I’m learning about myself and my family and my mom, and what it takes to have a healthy relationship, the more I’m starting to pump the brakes on ‘Is it something that I’m ready to commit to right now?’ he said.
‘That’s a lot to unpack,’ Chris acknowledged. ‘This is not the guy I was talking to a week ago.’
Matt said that he’d be ‘silly’ not to consider the perspective his mom had offered him, since she clearly cared about him and didn’t want him to make the same mistakes.
‘I just want to make the right decision,’ Matt told Chris. ‘And the right decision for me is taking my time and not doing something that’s what I should do.’
He didn’t want to get engaged yet, he affirmed, saying a premature proposal might torpedo his chance for a lasting relationship.
Matt had just one date left with each woman to figure out what to do.
On his date with Michelle, the two of them rappelled down the side of a building and snuggled on a sofa below, in front of a firepit.
‘Matt is my person, and we are going to spend a life together,’ Michelle said confidently.
That night, she gave Matt two basketball jerseys, each of which read ‘World-Changing Warriors,’ with ‘Mr. James’ and ‘Mrs. James’ on the back.
Seeing how much Michelle loved him made everything clear to Matt: He didn’t feel the same.
‘I feel terrible,’ he said privately. ‘But when you care about somebody, you’ve got to be honest with them.’
He told a devastated Michelle that he couldn’t return her feelings.
‘I put it all out on the table,’ Michelle said. ‘That’s all I can do.’
As she left, Matt second-guessed himself for a second. Chris came out of nowhere to point out how ‘brutal’ the break-up had been.
‘Tough to let an incredible woman like that walk away,’ he mused. ‘Part of you loved her.’
‘Yeah,’ Matt said, crying. ‘But I wasn’t in love with her.’
Matt was haunted by knowledge that his parents once loved each other too.
‘I can’t speak for Rachael, but I refuse to put her through what my mom went through,’ he offered. ‘The last thing I want to do is bring someone into a situation that I’m not ready for.’
Chris then had to tell Rachael that Matt was feeling ‘lost’ and wanted to cancel their date.
That sent lovestruck Rachael into a tailspin, wondering what she’d done wrong.
With one day left before the proposal, Matt met with jeweler Neil Lane and picked out a pear-shaped diamond.
He decided to hold on to it, saying, ‘This is more than just a ring. To me, it represents what my father couldn’t give my mother.’
On the day of the expected proposal, Matt waited for Rachael at a romantic spot in the woods.
She approached him nervously, afraid he was going to break her heart.
‘You know, I pictured this going a certain way,’ she said, as Matt held her hand. ‘And then yesterday happened, and changed everything.’
Rachael said she’d hated the idea that Matt had been hurting in some unknown way, but promised, ‘I’m not gonna run just when it gets tough.’
‘At the end of the day,’ she offered, ‘I just want you to be happy. But I just know with all my heart that I love you, and I will choose you every day from here on out, if you’ll let me.’
Matt’s voice broke as he told Rachael, ‘I came here looking for love, and I didn’t know what it looked like, because it’s not something that I’ve experienced. And everything that I came here looking for, I found with you.’
He told Rachael that he still couldn’t propose to her—not yet—but he didn’t want to lose her, that he loved her and wanted her to be his wife.
‘I love you, too,’ Rachael said, as they embraced and vowed to remain together anyway.
Matt carried her down a wooded lane to a waiting horse-drawn carriage, which whisked them away.
‘I love you,’ Rachael told Matt. ‘Love you. Love you.’