Rachael Kirkconnell is not holding back as she clears the air on her split from Matt James.
Nearly two weeks after James, 33, announced the couple’s breakup after four years together in a cryptic Instagram post, Kirkconnell, 28, opened up about how she’s coping with the split on Call Her Daddy. She told host Alex Cooper that she was on a flight when she found out the news.
“Literally the plane is taking off and I see his post, and that’s it,” Kirkconnell told Cooper. “I don’t have any service or anything for the next 12 hours, so I’m freaking out because, you know, just got broken up with, and now, a few hours later, it’s for the whole world to see and I’m still trying to process it.”
“I’m still in total shock,” she confessed. “I think that’s why I didn’t say anything. Still haven’t made a statement or anything because I’m processing this just like everyone else is.”
Also during the podcast, Kirkconnell shared that before the breakup, she believed that they were “on the same page, privately and publicly.”
“We talked about rings, he told me a few months ago to start saving some things, picking things out,” she said.
Kirkconnell’s appearance on the podcast came just hours after TMZ released footage of her first public outing since the split. As she answered questions from LAX before boarding a flight, she told the outlet she was “hanging in there” before elaborating on the breakup.
“Things will start to come out and I’ll speak about it whenever I’m ready, but for now, I’m just protecting my peace,” she said, before confirming there was “no” infidelity involved in the split — and that there’s “no” chance they’d get back together.
“No. Yeah, we’re out,” Kirkconnell confirmed.
Prior to speaking out on Call Her Daddy, Kirkconnell hinted that the breakup announcement came as a surprise to her while interacting with some comments on a sweet tribute for James’ 33rd birthday on Instagram.
In addition to liking supportive fan comments, the reality star also liked a comment speculating that she wasn’t ready for the announcement to be made public.
“The more I’m thinking about it the more I think he completely blindsided her with this,” the fan wrote. “Give her some grace and let her respond in her own time.”
James and Kirkconnell dated for four years prior to their shocking breakup. They left his season of The Bachelor as a couple in 2020, but when photos of her attending an antebellum plantation-themed party surfaced online, controversy arose and the pair went their separate ways.
They rekindled their relationship weeks later, though, and had been seemingly on the verge of a potential engagement.
Kirkconnell said while on Call Her Daddy that amid their split, James told her, “There were just qualities about me that he worries about having in a wife. Like at the end of the day, there are things that we aren’t compatible with. And the whole accountability and saying sorry and all that was really the main thing. ”
In February 2024, James told PEOPLE the couple were aligned about their plans to get married. “We wouldn’t be together if that wasn’t the same goal,” he said. “I’m definitely excited for what the future looks like with us.”
He also said that when it came time to propose, it would “be something special because Rachael’s very special.”
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James’ friend T.J. Holmes also revealed on a recent episode of the Amy & T.J. Podcast that he and his girlfriend Amy Robach had private conversations about marriage being in the cards for the former couple.
“[We’re] walking a fine line here because there’s, obviously, some stuff that we are privy to behind the scenes and from a personal standpoint with Matt over the years now,” he shared. “So I do wanna make sure we’re respectful of that relationship. But I can say that stuff he’s putting out publicly is also what he was saying privately. [I’ve] been talking plenty with him about marriage and future and Rachael and where they were going, what they were gonna be.”
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