Former 'Bachelor' Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell's Four-Year Relationship Timeline

On The Bachelor, successful men are the object of desire for multiple women. The show embraces the concept of competing your way to love, and encourages contestants to show their best, and sometimes most ruthless, side to win the heart of the singular bachelor.

For all the show's focus on love, few couples who come out of the show make it long-term.

Bachelor alum Matt James and his season winner, Rachael Kirkconnell, seemed to be among the exceptions. However, the pair called it quits in 2025 after four years together. Here's what we know about their sweet relationship timeline, along with the reason they ended things in 2025.

Matt's season started filming in September of 2020. Rachael and Matt seemed to really strike up a romantic chord from the very beginning, and people were already beginning to lay bets that the two would end up together. When the season wrapped, that's exactly what happened. And they seemed like a happy couple.

However, in early 2021, photos emerged online that showed Rachael attending an antebellum-themed plantation party in 2018, which many people consider racist.

Bachelor Nation erupted in an uproar, and host Chris Harrison even stepped down over comments he made regarding the situation. Matt and Rachael broke up briefly in 2021, revealing their breakup on the season reunion. However, by April of 2021, the pair had gotten back together behind the scenes.

There were rumors that Matt was seeing another girl when the couple was trying to patch things up, but Matt went on the Pomp podcast in May 2021 to say that Rachael had given him an ultimatum. She told the Bachelor alum, "If you’re going to make this work, let’s do it. But if you’re not going to make it work, I’m going to let you do your own thing."

And Matt knew that was the wake-up call he needed to get serious and focus on their relationship. Shortly thereafter, they announced that they were officially back together.

For the next two years, things seemed to be going smoothly between the two. They shared each other frequently on social media, professing their love and showing their adventures as they traveled and attended events together.

Matt released a book in 2023, called "First Impressions." In it, Matt discussed the tension behind the scenes after the 2018 images emerged. Or, rather, the lack of tension. He wrote, "As far as most of America was concerned, our relationship was still frozen in the blissful moment when I handed her the final rose, but so much had happened since then." He added, "We caught people up. We remained noncommittal. We spoke in cold, curt sentences."

Matt then continued, "But when the cameras shut off, we strode hand in hand back to the greenroom. We both still felt the spark. We took the rare opportunity to speak face-to-face and agreed to keep working on us” (excerpt via Cosmopolitan).

In 2023, Matt told People, "We do things in our relationship for each other. We like to share that with people because they've come along on our long journey together...There's no pressure. Everything that we do is for one another, and that, I think, is what makes our relationship work so well."

The rest of 2023 and 2024 seemed to be nothing but good vibes between the two as they supported one another and continued sharing their adventures on social media.

But abruptly, Matt posted about their breakup in 2025. He shared a picture of when the two first met on the Bachelor, with the caption, "Father God, give Rachael and I strength to mend our broken hearts.

"Give us a peace about this decision to end our relationship that transcends worldly understanding. Shower our friends and family with kindness and love to comfort us. And remind us that our Joy comes from you, Lord."

It's unclear why they called it quits, but the two officially ended things in January 2025.