There’s big drama happening in Bachelor Nation right now, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Grant Ellis’ season of The Bachelor, which premiered this week on the 2025 TV schedule. In a move nobody saw coming (even, apparently, Rachael Kirkconnell) Season 25 Matt James publicly announced his breakup from the woman he met four years ago and started dating on his controversial season of the ABC dating show. Now, two weeks after his post, Kirkconnell has returned to Instagram, and the comments section was flooded with former contestants sending their love.
Rachael Kirkconnell broke her silence this week on the argument that led to the end of her and Matt James’ relationship while they were vacationing in Japan. On January 29, she shared several photos from the trip, with assurances that the latest drama has not sullied her opinion of her favorite travel spot. Kirkconnell posted to Instagram:
Not surprisingly, Matt James is not featured in any of the pics on the post, though we can only assume he was the photographer for the ones of her. The most recent Bachelorette Jenn Tran — who went through her own bad breakup on her “cruel” season finale in September — had the sweetest words The Bachelor Season 25 winner, commenting:
I’m so proud of you. Feel ALL the feelings you want to feel. You are going to SHINE. You ARE the SUN and no one can dim your light❤️❤️❤️❤️✨✨
The Bachelorette Season 21 lead was just one of SO MANY of the dating show alumni to throw their support behind Rachael Kirkconnell during this difficult time. Her fellow contestants from Matt James’ season, several former Bachelorettes and more celebrated her for speaking out on the Call Her Daddy podcast and for having such a positive spin in her return to social media. More comments included:
- Beautiful inside and out 💗 loved how vulnerable you were on the podcast & can’t wait to continue and watch you shine ✨ you got this – Daisy Kent
- Love you my shining star ⭐️💝💝💝 – Kit Keenan
- Atta girl!!! 🙌🔥❤️ – Katie Thurston
- Queen 👑 – Abigail Heringer
- I promise you, there’s so much light, happiness and LOVE to look forward to. You got this!!! ♥️ – Tayshia Adams
- And we all love you!!! 🤍 – Rachel Recchia
- Keep pushing, only better things to come for you 💖 – Becca Kufrin
- We love you & are rooting for you ❤️ you got this 💪 😘 – Raven Gates
- We love you Rachael!!!!! 😍😍 – Becca Tilley
- Can’t dim that light! Nowhere but up from here beautiful girl! ♥️✨ – Jessenia Cruz
- Queen!! You got this❤️❤️❤️ – Vanessa Grimaldi
That doesn’t even include everyone from The Bachelor world who sent love, with some — including Jessica Girod, Kaity Biggar, Hannah Godwin, Susie Evans and Jade Roper — dropping emojis in solidarity.
Say what you will about the drama we see between the contestants sometimes, but this shows how much the women actually care about each other.
Matt James hasn’t had anything to say publicly for the past couple of weeks, so we’ll have to see if he ends up going on any podcasts to refute Rachael Kirkconnell’s side of the story or give his reasons for the seemingly sudden split. Until then, we’ve at least got Grant Ellis’ journey to focus on.
New episodes of The Bachelor air at 8 p.m. ET Mondays on ABC and can be streamed the next day with a Hulu subscription. If you can’t wait to see how it ends, check out the spoiler for who wins Grant Ellis’ season.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
