Former ‘Bachelor’ Colton Underwood Comes Out as Gay on ‘GMA’ (VIDEO)

TV Insider Staff April 14, 2021, 7:34 am

Colton Underwood is now getting honest and opening up about something he’s been questioned about for many years — his sexuality.

The former star of Season 23 of The Bachelor sat down with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America on Wednesday, April 14, for a “deeply personal interview” with the tagline, “Colton Underwood: In His Own Words.” And in that chat, the former football player came out to Roberts, Bachelor Nation, and America as gay.

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“There is something that you want people to know, so can you tell us what is on your heart that you want to share?” Roberts asks Underwood. Underwood then responds with a deep breath, “Yeah. It’s been a journey, for sure,” he says, and then announces that he’s gay.

“I got to a place where I didn’t think I’d ever share [this and] I would have rather died than said I’m gay,” he reveals.

Now, he says, “I’m like the and happiest I’ve ever been in my life, and that means the world to me.”

JUST IN: Former “Bachelor” star @Colton Underwood speaks his truth and comes out to @robinroberts: “I’m gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it… I’m the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life.” https://t.co/PoYJUAPBpA pic.twitter.com/isP7SptUu7

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 14, 2021

He sensed he was “different” since age 6, he tells Roberts, but “couldn’t process” what it meant until high school. And, he admits, not coming to terms with his sexuality resulted in thoughts of suicide.

“There was a moment in L.A. I didn’t think I’d wake up,” Colton says. “I think for me that was my wake-up call [that] this is your life, take back control. And I think looking back even beyond that … just suicidal thoughts and driving a car close to a cliff, like, ‘Oh, if this goes off a cliff that isn’t that big a deal.’ I don’t feel that way anymore.”

This is far from the first time the 29-year-old’s sexuality has been the focus of public attention. After competing on Becca Kufrin’s Bachelorette season in 2018, Underwood was pegged as the “Virgin Bachelor” during his time as the lead in 2019, and the reality star didn’t shy away from discussing his choice to abstain prior to the show. The season ended with Underwood dating contestant Cassie Randolph, whom he dated for over a year before breaking up in 2020.

Cassie Randolph and Colton Underwood in 2019 (Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Tubi)

He tells Roberts he was in love with Cassie, which “only made it harder and more confusing for me. I obviously had an internal fight going on.”

But the Bachelor franchise, he admits, actually pushed him into coming to terms with his being sexuality. “I just wish I wouldn’t have dragged people into my own mess of figuring out what I was. [But] without the Bachelor franchise, I don’t know if this would have ever come out.”

Prior to their split, Underwood wrote a book in 2020 titled The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV. In the memoir, he opened up about his relationships (including one with Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman), and he admitted that when he was a teen football star, people would question whether he was gay — mainly due to his choice to not have sex due to his strong Christian, conservative beliefs.

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“It was one of those things when you hear it so often and so much, you start believing it or you start questioning things,” Underwood told Variety at the time. “It really did affect me and it really was a weird time in my life, and I internalized a lot of it because I had nobody to talk to and nobody to vent to about it.”

In 2020, Underwood made headlines for another reason — his tumultuous split from Randolph, who accused him of stalking and harassing her and filed a restraining order against him. She alleged that her former boyfriend put a tracking device on her car and showed up at her parents’ house in the middle of the night uninvited. She later asked police for the order and investigation to be dismissed.

As for what he would say to Cassie now, he says, “I’d like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up, I made a lot of bad choices … I obviously had an internal fight going on.”