On Breaking Up Before ‘After the Final Rose’
The twosome saw each other for the first time amid the scandal on Valentine’s Day weekend. “She didn’t know about the context of the party when she chose to attend; it was just another college event in her mind. She didn’t offer her ignorance as an excuse. Just a fact — she paired it with the facts of her remorse and regret,” he wrote. “Tears streamed down both our faces. She apologized for the pain I felt.”
While James wrote he “forgave” Kirkconnell, they hit pause on their romance and didn’t speak for weeks. They spoke again before After the Final Rose, but things were still strange when they reunited on stage.
“The entire conversation between us felt like it was in service of the viewers rather than each other. We caught people up. We remained noncommittal. We spoke in cold, curt sentences,” he wrote, noting he rocked his beard on stage as a way to be himself and not the man who felt he had to be Mr. America. “But when the cameras shut off, we strode hand in hand back to the green room. We both still felt the spark. We took the rare opportunity to speak face-to-face and agreed to keep working on us.”
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