Matt James is taking a break from the game called love following his explosive season on “The Bachelor.”
Page Six reported that during an appearance on an episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” the reality star revealed he was taking time out to work on himself. James also admitted that he was not looking for a relationship following his breakup with Rachael Kirkconnell following her racism controversy during his time on the show.
“I’m just solely focused on getting back into that meaningful work in the community and centering myself around projects that are going to elevate all the work that I’ve been working on doing in the city and special interest things that I appreciate outside of reality television,” he explained.
James and Kirkconnell parted ways after photos of her attending a plantation-themed Georgia College campus party resurfaced online. Still, the realtor says he hasn’t fully turned his back on Kirkconnell just yet. “I don’t think that anyone’s irredeemable,” he said. “And I think that for Rachael, there’s a lot that we didn’t discuss that we probably should’ve talked about. I probably should’ve asked more clarifying questions,” he explained. “And I’m giving her that space to do that.”
He continued, “Some people didn’t grow up in diverse backgrounds like I did. I grew up with black, white, Jewish, Asian communities all around me. And I’m not going to make excuses for anybody, but those types of relationships I had growing up allowed me to appreciate those cultures and things that you should respect about [them] — just general decency.” Kirkconnell apologized for the incident.
Meanwhile, James has since wiped his Instagram account of 1 million followers clean of any photos just days after writing on Twitter that he was looking for a mental health professional. “✍🏾 Google ✍🏾 Therapist ✍🏾 Near me,” he wrote Tuesday, March 16.
Fans showered James with support, including one user who wrote, “All you haters – Matt is a human being. Agree or not with his decisions, have some empathy for the pain that he just went through on television and imagine how stressful it must be to be under the microscope as the first black bachelor.” That person added, “Can we try a little kindness?”
