Tonight, The Bachelor premieres its 29th season. Once again, fans will watch as a former basketball player and current day trader named Grant Ellis picks his future wife from a pool of budding influencers and ER nurses. Odds are, though, that he will eventually break up with his final-rose recipient. And the split will likely be messy, filled with cryptic Instagram posts, scorched-earth podcast appearances, and very public tears and recriminations. It’s just the way Bachelor Nation likes to break up.
Earlier this month, former Bachelor Matt James announced his split from his final-rose recipient, Rachael Kirkconnell, on Instagram. “Father God, give Rachael and I strength to mend our broken hearts,” he wrote in the caption of a photo of the two meeting on the show. “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.”
Turns out, Kirkconnell had no idea James was going to be posting about their breakup, as it was very fresh. Her sister Trinity Kirkconnell posted a comment on TikTok suggesting that James had broken up with her only three hours before posting the announcement. Rachael also “liked” a TikTok comment speculating that James “blindsided” her with the post. Neither party has commented since, but the drama is surely not over — current Bachelor host Jesse Palmer even invited both James and Kirkconnell to return to the show.
James and Kirkconnell are far from the only Bachelor couple to disagree about their breakup narrative. Before Ellis jumps into the hot seat, let’s reflect on some recent Bachelor splits that have kept the gossip-podcast industry afloat over the last few years.
Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick
Former Bachelorette Bristowe and former Bachelorette contestant Jason Tartick got together in 2019 and quickly became one of Bachelor Nation’s most public couples. They got engaged in 2021, but announced their split in the summer of 2023. At first, it seemed like things were amicable, but then Tartick posted a sad video of him moving out of the couple’s shared home in Nashville, and Bristowe started speaking out about her true feelings. On an episode of her podcast Off the Vine, she said she felt like Tartick wasn’t “protecting” her from fan criticism. “It didn’t protect me because it made me look like I was taking the dogs away from him,” she said.
Last year, Tartick got together with TikTok influencer Kat Stickler, and Bristowe got even more publicly agitated. “People make me fucking sick,” she wrote in a series of Instagram Stories after the relationship went public. “What people will do for attention is making me want to exit the internet forever.”
Kelley Flanagan and Peter Weber
Flanagan and Weber met on Weber’s season of The Bachelor in 2019. While Weber did not end up choosing Flanagan on the show, they reconnected during the COVID pandemic the following year (after Weber had broken up with all his other Bachelor women, of course). They broke up a few months later, got back together in 2022, and then broke up for good in 2023. After one of their breakups, Flanagan went on Barstool’s Chicks in the Office podcast and memorably shared some of the differences that led to their split.
“It’s not a bad thing, but he loves Pokémon cards and he loves playing video games and he loves going out and partying,” she said. “There was a while where I was trying to convince myself that that’s what I liked and I was like, ‘All right, Kelley, let’s be honest with yourself. Does that add up for you?’”
Weber later called Flanagan’s podcast appearance “very calculated.”
Clare Crawley and Dale Moss
Crawley and Moss met on one of the stranger seasons of The Bachelorette in 2020 amid the COVID pandemic. Crawley zeroed in on Moss right away, and the two got engaged so quickly that production had to bring in a new Bachelorette to finish the season.
But their relationship did not turn out to be a fairy tale: In 2021, Moss announced their split on Instagram, telling fans it was the “healthiest decision” for both of them. Crawley responded by claiming he blindsided her with the post.
“I was made aware of a ‘mutual’ statement at the same time you all were, so I’ve needed some time to really digest this,” she wrote on Instagram. “Speaking for myself, my intentions with this relationship have always been very clear, so the truth is I am crushed.”
Crawley and Moss got back together a couple months later, but ultimately broke up again a few months after that. Crawley responded to speculation on Instagram thusly: “I hate that I even have to say this, but in response to all the questions that are coming my way right now … I’m choosing not to speak right now on the details of my relationship, because at the end of the day anyone can put on an ACT or throw words together to form any narrative they want.”
She is now happily married to a guy named Ryan Dawkins. A few months after her wedding, she reflected on her relationship with Moss on the Almost Famous podcast. “It crushed me,” she said. “That relationship brought out the worst in me. It crushed my spirit. It crushed, in so many ways, who I was as a woman. I was begging someone for their love.”
So she’s over it?