Rachael Kirkconnell is content on her own until she meets the right partner.
“I’m very content with myself right now, but all of my friends are married or engaged or married with kids,” Kirkconnell, 30, said on the Thursday, October 22, episode of the “Scrubbing In” podcast. “It’s not that I feel the pressure to join them. It’s just I see up close their relationships and their children and stuff. I do want that, [and] I do think that life is probably so much more sweet when you are living it with someone.”
At the same time, the Bachelor Nation alum stressed that she “would rather be single” than be in a relationship that’s not similar to her friends’ happy marriages.
“Of course, for me, the goal is to be super happy and in love with someone, but I’m not going to settle at this point, “ she told podcast hosts Becca Tilley and Tanya Rad. “I also can be OK being alone ‘cause I don’t want to be in a bad relationship or an unhappy one. … That sounds horrible.”
Kirkconnell continued, “I never want to settle, so I would just rather be on my own. Maybe I’ll have like a bunch of animals and I’ll be fine, who knows?”
The former reality TV star last dated Matt James for four years after his 2021 season of The Bachelor. James, 34, allegedly blindsided Kirkconnell when he abruptly announced their breakup in January 2025 while she was on a plane home from Japan.
“I definitely think it was still out of nowhere, and I do think that whether there was either some regret [regarding] the breakup in the first place — or at least the way that it was handled — that’s probably there [on his end] if I had to guess,” she exclusively told Us in March 2025. “It’s just sad to look back on now — four years later, that’s how things went out. It’s something to not dwell on, but something that I wonder if I’ll always be a little bummed out about.”
She continued at the time, “I’m a very firm believer in thinking that it was a blessing in disguise and everything happens for a reason, and that that’s just something that needed to happen in my life. I don’t even know for what reason, but I’m trusting it. I’m trusting the process. I’m doing good and things are OK. As sad as it is, it happens for a reason.”
During Thursday’s podcast episode, Kirkconnell also addressed her status with Shane Parton, who appeared on Taylor Frankie Paul’s unaired Bachelorette season, following recent outings together.
“We actually grew up in the same area,” the content creator shared. “He’s great, he’s the best. I think he’s an incredible guy. He’s one of my good friends.”
As Kirkconnell has licked her wounds in the wake of her breakup from James, she hasn’t felt compelled to dive into the dating scene just yet.
“I don’t even have the drive to DM someone because I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t actually know them,’” she said on Thursday. “I’m not attracted to what I see on Instagram in any way.’ I have no idea who they really are, and so I’ve never had this drive to want to get to know them just based on, like, the photos they post online or the videos of them catching a touchdown or something. Like, I don’t really care. Who are you to get me to even want to, like, pursue you in any way?”
