It’s a sad day for Bachelor Nation as Maurissa Gunn and Riley Christian have officially announced their breakup.
After several cryptic messages, ominous social media activity, and speculation from fans, Riley and Maurissa finally decided to publicly declare the end of their historic relationship in a joint statement.
Riley Christian and Maurissa Gunn split
Just recently, Riley and Maurissa made a joint statement to People Magazine confirming the split.
Riley and Maurissa shared, “We have decided to go our separate ways. Never did we imagine this, but we’ve come to a point where we both need to work on ourselves.”
The statement continued, “We’ve appreciated everyone’s love and support so far throughout our journey and we just ask that you please respect our privacy as we navigate through this.”
While Riley and Maurissa are just now announcing their breakup, it is reported the couple went their separate ways several weeks ago, which would explain the lack of couple posts or sightings from the two in the last few weeks.
Riley and Maurissa will go down in Bachelor Nation history
Bachelor Nation is sure to be devastated by the official news of Riley and Maurissa’s breakup as not only were they a lovable match, they were also a historic one.
When Riley and Maurissa got engaged on Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 they became the first Black couple to ever get engaged both on Bachelor in Paradise and within the franchise as a whole.
Bachelor Nation rejoiced over this and thoroughly enjoyed seeing Riley and Maurissa represent Black love which is so rarely portrayed on television, especially within The Bachelor franchise.
After getting engaged, Riley and Maurissa kept fans swooning with their videos and TikToks together, and fans especially loved seeing glimpses into their precious Sunday morning routine.
With Riley and Maurissa being so outward in their affection towards one another, fans found it jarring when they seemed to stop posting or addressing each other after the holidays.
After the holidays, rumors began to circulate that the couple broke up, especially as Maurissa seemed to delete most all pictures of Riley from her page and shared ominous messages about needing more than love in a relationship and suggesting everything that glitters is not gold in a photo without her engagement ring.
Meanwhile, Riley kept his photos with Maurissa up but seemed to also only post ominous messages and posts about his next exciting venture as a lawyer.
For a while Riley and Maurissa kept quiet about their split but, with the cat finally out of the bag, time will tell if they come forward to confirm the reasons behind their relationship ending.
As they mourn the end of their special bond, here’s to wishing the best for both of them going forward in their next chapters. No matter what, Riley and Maurissa will always be historic within The Bachelor franchise.
Bachelor in Paradise is currently on hiatus on ABC.