Rachael Kirkconnell's relationship with Matt James might be over, but that's not stopping her from defending her ex.
On March 17, the graphic designer took to her Instagram Story to defend the Bachelor star after seeing negative comments about him online. "I am taken aback by what I've seen tonight," she began. "If you think that attacking a person I care about with racist insults is what I would ever want, you haven't been listening."
"Some of the things I've seen being said to and about Matt are repulsive," Rachael, who turned off comments on her latest Instagram post, continued. "I respect the decisions that Matt has had to make during this experience. If you are directing hate towards him, please stop. Recognize someone's humanity and think about the impact your words have."
As fans may recall, Matt chose to be with Rachael on the March 15 season finale of The Bachelor. However, during After the Final Rose, Matt revealed that he and Rachael broke up after racially insensitive images of her surfaced online.
After the photos—which showed Rachael attending an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity party—emerged, she vowed to educate herself. However, as Matt said on After the Final Rose, he believes she needs to do the work on her own, rather than do it together as a couple.
While on Good Morning America the following day, Matt told Michael Strahan that his breakup with Rachael "hit me like a ton of bricks."
"I felt the weight of everything that I was carrying throughout the season," he continued, "and with what we were dealing with as a country and having to explain that, why I think it's problematic to me and our relationship, which was extremely difficult."
"I know that Rachael's a good person," Matt noted, "and everything she outlined in her apology and her statement, I'm looking forward to seeing her do because I know she's capable of it."