Matt & Rachael Are the Latest: 13 of the Shortest Relationships in Bachelor History
Matt James & Rachael Kirkconnell
Length of Relationship: A couple of months
While the timeline isn’t 100 percent clear, the season 24 Bachelor and his final pick split sometime between the end of taping and the March 2021 After the Final Rose special in large part because of her past racist behavior. Though James never proposed, the pair did profess their love for one another on the finale and he called their first weeks together “great” and an “extended honeymoon period.”
In early 2021, however, photos of Kirkconnell wearing Native American garb as a costume and at an antebellum-themed party surfaced online, causing James to re-think the couple’s relationship. On After the Final Rose he confirmed they’d broken up.
“The most disappointing thing for me was having to explain to you why what I saw was problematic and why I was so upset,” he told Kirkconnell on ATFR. “And that’s why it was problematic, because when I’m in a relationship, it means that I’m committed to that person — and commitment for me when I’m dating someone is on track to get married.”
“And so when I questioned our relationship, it was on the context of you not fully understanding my Blackness,” he told a tearful Kirkconnell, “and what it means to be a Black man in America. And what it would mean for our kids when I saw those things that were floating around the internet.”
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Madison Prewett & Peter Weber
Length of Relationship: Two days
The shortest relationship in franchise history, Peter and Madison announced just two days after their After the Final Rose interview that, after much drama, an ol’ Bachelor switcheroo and Peter’s mom being very against the match, they would be going their separate ways.
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Jesse Palmer & Jessica Bowlin
Length of Relationship: One Month
Not even their coordinating names could keep these lovebirds from flying apart after one month of dating. The pair did not end the show engaged, so at least there was not a scuffle about who would keep the ring.
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Bob Guiney & Estella Gardinier
Length of Relationship: One Month
Not only did former Bachelor Bob break things off with Estella just one month after giving her the final rose, he also did it over the phone. Yikes.
Estella told PEOPLE at the time, “He’s not the person I thought he was. I don’t see any reason to ever have a conversation with him. The path that I’m taking is different from Bob’s. He’s a big-time star now! He’s big-time, so my life doesn’t compare to that.”
Bob told PEOPLE that he was cool with taking the blame: “I’ve been pulled in so many directions, and the one that I don’t think got enough of my time was our relationship. For that, I feel awful.”
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Aaron Buerge & Helene Eksterowicz
Length of Relationship: Five Weeks
These two called off their engagement before the season finale ever aired!
Helene told PEOPLE in 2003 that the pair had a rough go of it when they finished filming (she broke off their engagement after catching him looking at other women), but that things had taken a turn for the better when Aaron re-proposed while they watched the finale.
Five weeks later, in a Starbucks, Aaron broke things off with Helene. She told PEOPLE at the time, “It felt like a bomb dropped. I said, ‘I feel very deceived by you. You’ve told me every single day that you love me, and now this is it?’ ”
Meanwhile, Aaron told PEOPLE, “It was just the best decision for both of us.”
She kept the ring.
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Becca Kufrin & Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Length of Relationship: About Two Months
Arie shocked Bachelor Nation when he realized that he had made a mistake in proposing to Becca, telling her two months after he got down on one knee that he was having second thoughts and wanted to pursue a relationship with runner-up Lauren Burnham.
America watched the whole, awkward thing go down on national television. Arie and Lauren are now married, share a young daughter and have twins on the way.
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Hannah Ann Sluss & Peter Weber
Length of Relationship: Two Months
Before he decided to give his relationship with Madison Prewett another try, Peter proposed to Hannah Ann. Two months into their engagement, the pilot broke things off, saying that he still had feelings for his runner-up.
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Whitney Bischoff & Chris Soules
Length of Relationship: Two Months
Ol’ Chris Soule had a farm, and on that farm there was not a fiancée. At least not after two months. Chris and his fiancé Whitney announced that they were splitting shortly after his season aired.
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Travis Stork & Sarah Stone
Length of Relationship: One Week After Their Finale Aired
Travis’ season of The Bachelor filmed in Paris, the most romantic city in the world, but that didn’t keep him and finalist Sarah from calling it quits just one week after their finale aired.
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Matt Grant & Shayne Lamas
Length of Relationship: Two Months
Grant, whose season of The Bachelor filmed in London, said “Cheerio” to Shayne after two months of being engaged.
“We tried hard to make it work but we realized that we were both heading in different directions,” Matt and Shayne said in a joint statement in 2008. “We truly care about each other and will remain close friends.”
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Lorenzo Borghese & Jennifer Wilson
Length of Relationship: About Three Months
The Italian prince was ready to promise eighth grade teacher Jennifer Wilson la bella vita, but their romance didn’t last.
In fact, after breaking things off with Jennifer, Lorenzo dated his runner-up, Sadie Murray, for a few months as well.
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Brad Womack & Emily Maynard
Length of Relationship: Three Months
Second time was not the charm for Womack, who proposed to Emily on his season of The Bachelor after walking away alone on his first season.
According to Emily, Brad tried to do it over e-mail just before the pair were meant to go on After the Final Rose. When they split shortly after, they told PEOPLE, “Though we are madly in love, it has been a bumpy couple of months for us and our priority right now is to focus on our relationship.”
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Jake Pavelka & Vienna Girardi
Length of Relationship: Three Months
Pavelka shocked Bachelor Nation when he chose his season’s “villain,” Vienna, for his final rose. The pair were engaged for three months before they sat down with Chris Harrison and hashed out what had gone wrong in a disastrous interview.
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