The Bachelor couple Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell have dished about getting engaged now that they're approaching the three-year mark in their relationship.

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On The Bachelor's 25th season, which aired in early 2021, Matt selected Rachael as his winner, but Matt chose not to propose marriage.

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Rachael joked how she and Matt often "forget" they met on a reality show, but forgetting probably becomes more difficult when Bachelor Nation constantly asks them if they've broken up or if an engagement is on the horizon.

"I don't get annoyed by any of that stuff. I get it," Matt told Us Weekly in a joint interview with Rachael on Tuesday.

"We post and share every aspect of our lives. So for people to be curious means that we're, you know, keeping them in the loop and we want them in the loop."

Rachael agreed that she gets the hype surrounding their relationship as well.

"They've been waiting for an engagement since the finale of the show," Rachael acknowledged.

But The Bachelor winner asks fans to consider the fact she and Matt didn't even get to spend a lot of time together on the show.

Instead, the couple's romance developed in the real world, away from cameras.

"I do just want to put into perspective for people -- if we were in a normal relationship, met out on the street in New York and we've been dating going on three years... it's not that weird [to not be engaged]. I feel like that's pretty normal," Rachael explained.

"I feel like we're doing all the right things to take our relationship to the next step."

The Bachelor winner and Matt gushed about how they're extremely happy with their relationship right now.

"Matt really is just my best friend," Rachael told the magazine.

"I think at the end of the day, it's just really fun to live the life that we live together. I don't think anything that we do would be nearly as fun if I weren't with him."

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Rachael continued, "I love our dynamic, I think that we make each other better people. We bring out the better version of ourselves. I think we have a lot to teach each other."

Matt also said he's been dating his best friend, which "makes everything that much better."

"You get to enjoy life with that person," the former The Bachelor star elaborated. "It's a great come true. We're always telling ourselves how blessed we are."

Matt and Rachael's romance is going strong. They enjoy trying new restaurants together and traveling, including recent trips to Greece and Saint John.

And The Bachelor couple teased in June that they're moving from New York City to Los Angeles.

After falling in love on The Bachelor, Matt and Rachael briefly split in February 2021 during Rachael's memorable racism controversy, which resulted in former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison and ABC agreeing to part ways.

But Rachael was extremely apologetic, and so she and Matt reconciled in April 2021 and have seemingly been inseparable ever since.

Rachael told Us in June 2022, "The only timeline I give him is I was like, 'I gotta have kids before, you know, I can't have kids.' So keep that in mind."

Rachael said she and Matt weren't concerned with others' expectations for their relationship and future together.

"I feel like it's pretty crucial to just have fun with one another no matter where we're at or what we're doing," Rachael shared. "We got to make the most of everything."

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And Matt told the Los Angeles Times that same month, "We're one of the only couples from that franchise still going strong. The reason is we're going at things at our own pace. We're not playing games that a lot of people play just to stay in that circle."

Matt said on a May 2022 episode of Watch What Happens Live that he had a feeling Rachael was The One for him when they met on the very first night of filming The Bachelor in late 2020.

"When I met everybody that first night, [our] interaction was the most genuine," Matt said, according to People. "I was looking for that genuine connection and just realness and she exuded it. And there it is."

Matt also reportedly wrote in his book, First Impressions: Off Screen Conversations with a Bachelor on Race, Family, and Forgiveness, that he wanted to spend all of his time with Rachael while taping the show.

"In the beginning, she cut through the polished front I'd honed and into my nerdy side," Matt wrote of Rachael.

"We debated who was the bigger fan of How to Train Your Dragon and Marvel movies. I observed her empathy from afar, noticed how her kindness extended beyond our time alone and to everyone else she encountered."

Due to Rachael and Matt's tight bond, Rachael and Matt's best friend, The Bachelorette 15 alum Tyler Cameron, have confessed to having a love-hate relationship.

Tyler and Rachael explained the cause of their feud on Tyler's "Everybody But Me" radio show back in January.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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