Matt James’ friend has just backed him amid all the split drama with Rachael Kirkconnell

As if the drama between Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell wasn’t shady enough, his friend, TJ Holmes, has given his take on their break-up. They lasted four years after The Bachelor – until now.

After Rachael Kirkconnell came out and said she was blindsided on the Call Her Daddy podcast, The Bachelor former couple’s friend, TJ Holmes, is saying they were both fine before their split.

Matt James ‘wasn’t trying to fool Rachael’

Although Rachael says she was blindsided, and her family had no idea they’d split as Matt posted a break-up announcement two hours after dumping her, their friend TJ Holmes says otherwise.

“Matt obviously wasn’t fooling her or trying to trick her. I had plenty of conversations with this dude,” TJ said on his podcast, Amy & TJ. “Now that she said it, I feel more comfortable saying it.”

He’s talked about marrying this woman. He’s talked about them having kids,” Holmes said. “He talked about it plenty privately. [I] had this conversation tons of times with this dude.”

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He still wanted to marry her, says TJ

Matt had been openly talking about rings and marriage, according to TJ, and still wanted to marry Rachael. She’s been saying since the show how she saw him as her future husband.

Rachael also said she wanted any proposal to be a surprise, but they always spoke about kids and getting married. However, TJ has now said how “something changed along the way”.

“Her argument is she didn’t know about it. She didn’t even think he knew the breakup was going to come,” he added, after Rachael said he broke up with her because they weren’t compatible.

She said on the Call Her Daddy podcast last week how he doesn’t see himself marrying her, adding, “He said that at the end of the day there were just qualities about me that he worries about having in a wife.”