Rachael Kirkconnell Drops Demisexual Bombshell After Split From Matt James

Months after her extremely publicized cut up from “Bachelor” alum Matt James, actuality TV star Rachael Kirkconnell is opening up about her sexuality in a brand new interview that’s sparking dialog throughout Bachelor Nation. The 29-year-old former winner of “The Bachelor” season 25 revealed she identifies as demisexual, a time period used to explain individuals who solely expertise sexual attraction after forming a deep emotional bond. The revelation got here throughout a candid dialogue with Hallie Batchelder, the place Rachael Kirkconnell shared contemporary perception into how she approaches love and intimacy following her breakup.

Quickly after, Rachael appeared on “Name Her Daddy,” explaining that James advised her he “couldn’t see himself proposing” and didn’t really feel “prepared” for marriage, a revelation that left followers shocked. Now, Rachael’s newest confession sheds new mild on how she views connection and attraction post-breakup, and why emotional security has develop into her high precedence.

Throughout her “Extra Dirty” look, Rachael candidly mirrored on her romantic method and the way she got here to appreciate she identifies as demisexual. “I believe that’s me,” she admitted, after host Hallie Batchelder introduced up the time period. “I simply really feel like I do need to have an emotional reference to somebody. I simply don’t suppose I may go house with anybody. I’ve to really feel secure and comfy with them and be emotionally invested a minimum of in a approach that I may see us courting or I a minimum of have a crush on them.”

When Batchelder responded that “everybody ought to be demisexual,” Rachael laughed however stood by her view that connection trumps chemistry. “It’s not a bodily attraction, I assume,” she added. “I can say, ‘Wow, that individual is basically engaging,’ however I don’t care after that. They might have the worst character ever, and that may make me not wish to sleep with them as a result of that completely turns me off.”

The star went on to confess she’s nonetheless studying about totally different labels and typically will get “confused” between demisexual and pansexual, however clarified that for her, attraction solely grows from emotional depth, not look. “I’m extra centered on the bond than the attraction,” she mentioned. “Possibly that’s my drawback. Their attraction can solely get thus far for me.”

Rachael Kirkconnell and Matt James’ relationship wasn’t with out its share of public challenges. Throughout their season of “The Bachelor” in 2021, the couple confronted intense backlash after images resurfaced of Rachael attending an Previous South–themed fraternity formal at Georgia Faculty in 2018, an occasion that evoked painful ties to the antebellum South and its racist historical past.

The controversy ignited a nationwide dialog round race and accountability within the “Bachelor” franchise, significantly as a result of Matt was the primary Black lead within the present’s long-running historical past.

On the time, Rachael issued a public apology on Instagram, writing that she was “sorry to anybody that has been offended or damage” and admitted she was studying how her actions contributed to a broader cultural drawback. “I didn’t acknowledge how offensive and racist my actions had been, however that doesn’t excuse them,” she wrote. “They don’t seem to be acceptable or OK in any sense. I used to be ignorant, however my ignorance was racist.”