Matt James sat down with Arsenio Hall who was guest hosting ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ and opened about the pressures he faced being the first Black lead on ‘The Bachelor.’
via People:
“It was a lot,” the Dancing with the Stars contestant admitted. “On both sides, because, you know, my dad’s Black and my mom’s white.”
Asked whether he felt “pressure” to pick a Black woman in the end, James replied: “One hundred percent.”
“There was pressure on both sides,” he continued. “But ultimately, your heart leads you where love is and that’s what I followed.”
James’ Bachelor season aired earlier this year. Contestants Rachael Kirkconnell, Michelle Young and Bri Springs made it to the final three.
Though he picked Kirkconnell, who is white, the pair confirmed during the season’s After the Final Rose special in March that they had split after past racially insensitive behavior of hers surfaced online, engulfing the franchise in controversy. But the couple found their way back together, and James confirmed to PEOPLE the following month that he was “pursuing” a relationship with Kirkconnell again.
“You’ve got to be very stern in how you feel about things,” James said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Friday. “You don’t want to rush things, so we take things day by day and we’re very much in love and very happy right now.”
Recently, Kirkconnell, 24, opened up about how the two have worked to reach a “good place” in their relationship.
“It was a bit of a journey. But I think we’re in a really good place. We’ve had a lot of love come our way,” she told Extra.
“I like to think that even though people have been super, super nice, we just like to focus on each other and put all of that aside and let that outside noise stay a little more quiet these days,” she continued. “So it’s been good. We’ve been good.”
Now…you know producers weren’t about to let a Black ‘Bachelor’ pick a Black woman on that franchise — the middle-American white woman audience would lose their sh*t!
