‘The Bachelor’: Who Received Matt James’ Final Rose?

After a season filled with drama and controversy, Matt James made a big decision during The Bachelor finale. The lead had to make a choice between the final two contestants — Michelle Young and Rachael Kirkconnell. In the end, after sharing his hesitations to Chris Harrison about proposing, James gifted his Final Rose to Kirkconnell, who has been at the center of a racism controversy throughout the course of the season. Despite the fact that the show typically ends with a proposal, the Bachelor decided to simply give Kirkconnell his Final Rose.

While the After the Final Rose special is traditionally a happy affair for the new couple, this season’s finale event was marred by the racism controversy that the Bachelor franchise has found itself at the center of. After the Final Rose was hosted by Emmanuel Acho, who is a former football player and the author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man. He was chosen to replace Harrison, who announced that he would be taking a step back from the franchise after he drew criticism for defending Kirkconnell’s alleged pre-show racist actions during an Extra interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay. Both Harrison and Kirkconnell later issued apologies, with the longtime host particularly apologizing to Lindsay for “not listening” to her during the course of the interview.

In light of this scandal, James released a statement in which he noted that he was experiencing a “challenging” few weeks amidst this drama. He also addressed the “troubling” updates that had taken place, including ones about Kirkconnell, stating, “The reality is that I’m learning about these situations in real time, and it has been devastating and heartbreaking to put it bluntly.” James went on to criticize Harrison for his “failure to receive and understand the emotional labor that my friend Rachel Lindsay was taking on by graciously and patiently explaining the racist history of the Antebellum South, a painful history that every American should understand intimately, was troubling and painful to watch.”

The lead added that this interview is “a much larger issue that The Bachelor franchise has fallen short on addressing adequately for years.” James added that he will “continue to process this experience” and that he would speak out on this subject more in the future. He ended his message by writing, “My greatest prayer is that this is an inflection point that results in real and institutional change for the better.”