Matt James is not about to kiss and tell.
Over the weekend, The Bachelor star was spotted hanging out with ex-girlfriend Rachael Kirkconnell in Southern California. The surprise reunion caused fans to wonder if the pair was giving their love story another chance after a dramatic season finale. But in a new interview with E! News, Matt remained coy on where he stands with the 24-year-old graphic designer.
"I'm focused on my training right now," he explained to E! News. "I've got a marathon coming up and a triathlon I'm training for as well. And I'm not pursuing any—I'm not, I'm not…I'm just super focused right now."
At the same time, the 29-year-old reality star understands why Bachelor Nation is curious to know where he stands in the romance department. After all, millions of viewers watched Matt give his final rose to Rachael during The Bachelor finale in March.
"It is what it is," he shared. "You're on a TV show and that's the reality of it. It was a great life experience and I'm really excited about what's next and a lot of impactful things that I'm working [on] in the community."
Most recently, Matt partnered with DICK's Sporting Goods on their annual National Runners Month campaign. With summer quickly approaching, The Bachelor star hopes to #SeeYouOutThere and celebrate the many benefits of running outdoors.
While Matt has run marathons with fellow Bachelor Nation members Tyler Cameron and Andi Dorfman, there's another familiar face he loves working out with. In case you didn't already guess, it's close friend Hannah Brown.
"Me and Hannah formed a really strong relationship over quarantine living together and exercising together, doing practically everything that everyone else is doing together—making funny videos cooking, fighting," Matt joked. "One of the things that we bonded over was fitness."
When looking back on his season of The Bachelor, Matt said he doesn't regret anything. In fact, he's "very appreciative" of the opportunity ABC gave him. "It was a great experience and I learned a lot about myself," he explained. "A lot of things I wouldn't have learned if I wouldn't have gone through something like that."
And although Matt is still adjusting to the constant attention on his personal life, he is trying to focus on the positives more than the negatives when it comes to being a public figure.
"You've got to take the good with the bad," he explained. "The bad just being people speculating on the type of person that you are or things that they might not know about, and you've just got to take it in stride and hope that the good things that you do outshine the negative things that are created through just being out and about."
Matt added, "You know, anything and everything can be spun into a story now…Fundamentally, I'm the same person as I was before the show."