Colton Underwood has come out as gay.
The former "Bachelor" star made the revelation to Robin Roberts in a "Good Morning America" interview that aired Wednesday morning.
"I've ran from myself for a long time. I've hated myself for a long time," he said. "And I'm gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it. And the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know."
Underwood admitted he was "still nervous" about coming out, but shared that this was the "happiest and healthiest" he had been in a long time. Before realizing his truth, the former NFL player said he was in a "dark and bad" space and found himself not wanting to face the day.
"There was a moment in LA that I woke up, and I didn’t think I was going to wake up," he said. "I didn’t have the intentions of waking up. I think that for me was my wake-up call."
At one point, Underwood said he would have "rather died than say I'm gay, but he finally came to a place of acceptance and knew it was time to share the news with the public.
Underwood was first introduced to the Bachelor Nation in 2018, as a contestant on Becca Kufrin's season of "The Bachelorette." The following year he appeared as the lead on Season 23 of "The Bachelor," during which he gave his final rose to Cassie Randolph but chose not to propose to her. They continued to date after the season wrapped up, but announced their split in 2020.
Then Randolph filed a restraining order against Underwood. She accused him of harassing and stalking her and claimed he had put a tracking device on her car. Underwood later told TMZ that they had managed to resolve the matter privately.
"The two of us were able to reach a private agreement to address any of Cassie’s concerns," he said. "I do not believe Cassie did anything wrong in filing for the restraining orders and also believe she acted in good faith. I appreciate everyone’s respect for privacy regarding this matter."
In his interview with "GMA," Underwood apologized to Randolph and admitted that he did love her, which made everything more difficult for him.
"I would like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices," he said.
"I loved everything about her," he added. "I wish that I would’ve been courageous enough to fix myself before breaking anyone else."
Underwood further admitted he regretted appearing in "The Bachelor," which may have hurt other women contestants.
"Do I regret being 'The Bachelor?' Do I regret handling it the way that I did? I do. I do think I could’ve handled it better. I just wish I wouldn’t have dragged people into the mess of figuring out who I was," he said.
"But I can sit here and say I’m sorry to all of those women, and I can also say thank you because without them and without 'The Bachelor' franchise I don’t know if this would’ve come out."
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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