In hot water. Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell was accused of racism and bullying after alleged social media posts from her past resurfaced.
The graphic designer, who is a frontrunner on Matt James‘ season, came under fire after a TikTok user accused the contestant of mistreating her in high school for “liking Black guys.” This led to more people coming forward with claims about Rachael “liking” insensitive social media posts.
Matt did not propose to Rachael during the finale of season 25, but they left the reality show as a couple. However, they split shortly after in light of her controversy (more on this below).
As for how the real estate analyst, 29, is feeling about the accusations against Rachael, he opened up more about his decision to walk away from their romance during After the Final Rose, which was hosted by Emmanuel Acho.
“As someone who grew up in the South, it takes me to a place that I don’t often like to thing about. I wasn’t OK,” the leading man explained during a tense sit-down with his ex. “It was in that moment and the conversation that I had, that Rachael might not understand what it means to be Black in America. It’s heartbreaking. If you don’t understand that something like that is problematic in 2018, there’s a lot of me that you won’t understand. It’s as simple as that.”
It seems Rachael will have more opportunities to talk about her side of things. Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay is hoping to have Rachael on her and Becca Kufrin’s “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast, where the season 13 star said she will “100 percent address” the situation.
“There’s no way I’m going to be soft. I can guarantee you I have questions based on what I’ve seen, and I will be asking those questions,” Rachel told Bustle in February.
Rachael caught the leading man’s eye from the very beginning. “This has been a steady progression … since the first week,” Matt admitted to ET about his connection to the Georgia native.
“It was a feeling I hadn’t felt, and … this is nothing that [producers are] telling me to say or do, it’s just, I felt it in the moment and I had never felt it before,” he continued. The NYC resident even told her he was falling in love with her during their week 5 one-on-one date.
“I hadn’t had that one-on-one time with Rachael — all of our time had been spent in that group-date setting — so having that one-on-one time just to confirm how I felt and how she was feeling was nice … I hadn’t felt it before,” he gushed.
The drama surrounding Rachael seems to get bigger every day. Keep scrolling for everything we know about the social media controversy.