Colton Underwood claimed he was blackmailed over his sexuality before coming out.
The former Bachelor star made this explosive claim in the new issue of Variety, where he shared details of why he ultimately felt that saying his truth was better than keeping his identity a secret.
In the interview, he discussed that at his lowest point prior to admitting his truth, he had other pressing issues to deal with.
“I, at one point, during my rock bottom and spiral, was getting blackmailed. Nobody knows I was blackmailed,” he said of information someone had regarding his sexual identity prior to coming out.
Colton told Variety that in 2020, while he was living in Los Angeles, he visited a spa that had a reputation for catering to gay clientele.
After his visit, which he said he was “just to look,” Colton claimed to have received an anonymous email, from someone who claimed to have taken nude photos of him and was threatening to release them to the press.
The blackmailer threatened to “out” Colton to the press
Colton said he never saw the photographs. The person who wrote the email threatened to out him to the press.
In a panic, Colton forwarded the email to his publicist, Alex Spieller, and in turn, the two had a conversation about his personal life and his truth. “I knew that out of anybody in my world, my publicist wasn’t going to ruin me,” Colton stated.
Colton then addressed his coming out to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America and spoke of why, for so long, he hid his sexual orientation.
“I grew up in Central Illinois. I had never seen a football player that had made it to the NFL that had been gay, growing up Catholic,” he said. This was his path when he still lived in fear of his sexuality and lived life as a heterosexual male.
Since telling his story, Colton said he had received hundreds of messages from “gay Christian men and women who are confused in their walk with Jesus say, ‘I felt closer to God when I came out.'”
Colton said he would no longer discuss Cassie Randolph
Colton spoke of his former girlfriend of one year, Cassie Randolph.
“I never want people to think that I’m coming out to change the narrative, or to brush over and not take responsibility for my actions, and now that I have this gay life that I don’t have to address my past as a straight man,” he explained.
“Controlling situations to try to grasp at any part of the straight fantasy that I was trying to live out was so wrong.”
Colton revealed that he was conflicted and unfairly acted out towards Cassie at the end of their relationship, and feared what he knew deep inside all along, that he was a gay man.
“It’s not who I am as a human being, and it’s not how I carry myself,” he said.
“If there was anything I could do to take more ownership, I would. But also, out of respect to her, I don’t want to get into the details. I want this interview to be the last time I address her, because it’s not fair for her to have her name in articles every time I talk. I’m sorry, and I want her to know that I hope she has the best, most beautiful life,” Colton said, putting a period on his discussion about his former Bachelor co-star.
The Bachelor is currently on hiatus.