In a January 2025 Call Her Daddy interview, Rachael Kirkconnell said Matt James’s public breakup announcement caught her off guard and left her feeling disrespected. She also said they had discussed engagement and starting a family, while making clear she did not want listeners to see James as a bad person.
James announced the breakup before Kirkconnell’s podcast interview
The Los Angeles Times reported that James announced their split on Instagram in mid-January 2025. Kirkconnell discussed the breakup afterward on Call Her Daddy; Bachelor Nation’s recap said she was still processing it. The interview listing used the first-person phrase “I Was Blindsided,” while contemporaneous coverage described the breakup as abrupt.
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She said she learned of the announcement while boarding a flight
According to E!’s account of the interview, Kirkconnell said she found out about James’s public announcement while boarding a flight from Tokyo. She said she felt he “disrespected me by doing that,” referring to the way the breakup was made public. That describes her reaction to the announcement, rather than an independently established account of James’s intentions.
They had discussed engagement and a family, she said
E! reported that Kirkconnell said the couple had talked about getting engaged and starting a family before the split. Those plans form part of her account of why the public announcement came as a shock; the available coverage does not establish further details about what the couple had agreed or planned.
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Kirkconnell said she was doing okay and defended James
ABC News reported that Kirkconnell described herself as “doing OK.” She also said she did not want people to conclude James was a bad person: “I don’t want people thinking that, like, he’s this bad guy or that he’s like not, I don’t know, considerate of my feelings or whatever, ’cause he is a good guy at the end of the day.” Her comments convey both hurt about the announcement and her wish not to reduce James to that moment.
What the coverage says about why they split
A later Bachelor Nation follow-up summarized their explanation as the two ultimately wanting different things. That is the outlet’s account of what they said, not an independent or definitive explanation of the breakup.
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What is known about their relationship now
The cited coverage documents their accounts in 2025, but does not establish what either person has said or done about the relationship since then. It therefore cannot confirm their status as of October 2026.
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Sources
- Bachelor Nation’s recap of Kirkconnell’s Call Her Daddy interview
- Los Angeles Times coverage of James’s announcement and Kirkconnell’s response
- E!’s account of Kirkconnell’s comments about the flight, engagement and family discussions
- ABC News on Kirkconnell’s remarks about how she was doing and how she wanted James viewed
- Bachelor Nation’s later follow-up on the pair’s explanation
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