Former Bachelor lead Colton Underwood admitted that he started exploring his sexuality ahead of appearing on The Bachelorette and The Bachelor.
Colton spoke to Variety about coming out publicly on Good Morning America.
He revealed that he had been “experimenting with men” prior to coming out and even before he appeared on The Bachelor franchise.
“I’ll say this: I was ‘the Virgin Bachelor,’ but I did experiment with men prior to being on The Bachelorette,” he admits.
He explains that he had downloaded LGTBQ+ dating apps like Grindr under an alias and used that to meet men.
“When I say ‘hookups,’ not sex,” Colton clarifies. “I want to make that very clear that I did not have sex with a man, prior to that.”
“I remember feeling so guilty, like ‘What the hell am I doing?’” Colton says of his Grindr hookups.
He then expressed that those experiences are what lead him to join The Bachelorette and eventually become The Bachelor.
“It was my first time letting myself even go there, so much so that I was like, ‘I need The Bachelorette in my life, so I could be straight,’” he confesses.
Colton was blackmailed into coming out
Colton also admits that he was eventually blackmailed by someone who had spotted him at a gay spa.
Colton explains that the blackmailer claimed to have nude photos of him.
Out of fear over the blackmailers sending the photos to media outlets, Colton sent the blackmail email to his publicist.
This lead to him coming out publicly on Good Morning America.
Colton Underwood coming out publicly
Colton came out publicly on Good Morning America on April 14.
During an interview with Robin Roberts, Colton admitted he knew he was gay for most of his life but he felt pressure from his religion and environment to live life as a straight man.
However, he revealed that he felt so much happier once he came out and revealed that it actually brought him closer to his faith.
Meanwhile, he expressed remorse towards his girlfriend and Bachelor winner Cassie Randolph for the pain he caused her.
Viewers were expecting a more direct apology to Cassie after he had reportedly stalked her and she had to file for a restraining order.
However, Cassie doesn’t want to comment or be linked to Colton coming out. She reportedly didn’t know that he was gay and hadn’t been given a heads up about his GMA interview.
Colton is also filming a Netflix series about coming out and his life as a gay man. It is likely that he’ll delve into more details about his story on the unscripted series.
The Bachelorette premieres on ABC on Monday, June 7 at 8/7c