So much for that amicable break-up, huh?
Weeks after Rachael Kirkconnell and Matt James sat across from each other on ABC’s After the Final Rose special — both sounding sad that their romance was over, yet not bitter — the gloves have seemingly come off.
Kirkconnell is pissed at her ex-boyfriend, and unafraid to say so.
On Friday, a woman named Grace Amerling appeared Reality Steve’s popular podcast and said she met James last year, prior to filming getting underway on The Bachelor Season 25.
Amerling told Reality Steve on Friday that she and James had a brief fling in 2020 and that Matt then got into contact with her again after splitting from Kirkconnell, adding that she turned down his request to meet up in Florida.
Then, Amerling saw photos of Matt out and about with Rachael.
"It just didn’t sit right with me," Grace said on this podcast.
"I just felt like Rachael was so in love with him and for him to be trying to contact me and hang out with me – someone he’s had past romantic relationships with – two days prior in Miami…"
"I felt like I had to say something for Rachael’s sake."
"Rachael really a victim here. At some point, it’s not okay."
Know who agrees with that statement?
Rachael Kirkconnell.
According to celebrity gossip magazine Us Weekly, the Season 25 winner feels Matt “manipulated” her because the pair were “talking about a future together” when they reunited earlier this week.
That, plus James said on air that he wanted her to be the mother to his children someday.
Matt said that before he learned about Rachael’s social media history.
As Bachelor Nation fans know well by now, Kirkconnell Liked posts with images of the Confederate Flag and, most damning of all, attending a plantation-themed party in 2018.
“If you don’t understand why something like that is problematic in 2018, there’s a lot of me that you won’t understand,” James told guest host Emmanuel Acho on the aforementioned special, explaining why he had to dump Kirkconnell.
“It’s as simple as that.”
Kirkconnell has apologized on multiple occasions for her past behavior, deeming it racist and wrong.
She even said James was still the love of her life after they split.
But now he’s out there, trying to rekindle an old flame?
After pouring his heart out to her on the show just a few months ago and then meeting up again with her very recently?!?
“Rachael is very emotional right now because she was very hopeful that things were going to work out."
"She’s still trying to process this,” an insider tells Us Weekly, adding it “doesn’t seem like they will be getting back together.”
A source close to James, though, told this same outlet on Friday that Matt was “not looking for a romantic relationship with Rachael after he ended it with her” last month.
The insider alleged that the North Carolina native “tried to make it clear to her that he just wants to be friends."
Guess it wasn’t made clear enough.
This person also said that “Matt is a caring and supportive person, so he wouldn’t want to block her out of his life completely.”
That’s great and all, at least in theory, but in execution? The whole thing looks pretty bad for James, doesn’t it?
Clare Crawley thinks so.
When one Twitter user reminded fellow Bachelor Nation folks that Crawley had “tried to warn” them about James in the past, the hairstylist couldn’t help but reply.
Crawley reposted the tweet on Friday, April 9, and added a shrug and smirk emoji.
You know, for emphasis.