Former Bachelor Colton Underwood comes out as gay in an emotional GMA interview

Variety

In an interview with Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, the 29-year-old former football player says he came to terms with being gay during the pandemic. Underwood was the 23rd Bachelor star in 2019, making headlines as the first virgin to lead the ABC reality show. In his memoir released last year, Underwood said that people since grade school would question whether he was gay and that he once questioned his sexuality after years of bullying. “Obviously this year’s been a lot for a lot of people, and it’s probably made a lot of people look themselves in the mirror and figure out who they are and what they’ve been running from and putting off in their lives," said Underwood, who made headlines when he contracted coronavirus in March 2020. "For me, I’ve ran from myself for a long time and I’ve hated myself for a long time, and I’m gay. I came to terms with that that earlier this year and have been processing it. The next step in all of this is sort of letting people know. I’m still nervous, but it’s been a journey for sure.” Underwood added: "I’m emotional, but I’m emotional in such a good, happy, positive way. I’m like the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life. That means the world to me.” When Roberts asked about his decision to come out, Underwood responded: “I got into a place for me in my personal life that was dark and bad. I can list a bunch of different things but they’d all be excuses. I think overall the reason why now is because I got to a place where I didn’t think I was ever going to share this. I would rather have died than say I’m gay, and that was sort of my wake up call.” Underwood was also asked if there was a moment he had suicidal thoughts. He responded that he experienced a "wake-up call" one day when "I didn’t think I was going to wake up." As for the confusion the women dated on The Bachelor might feel, Underwood said: "I thought a lot about this…Do I regret being The Bachelor? And handling it the way that I did? I do think I could have handled it better, I do say that. I just wish I wouldn’t have dragged people into my own mess of figuring out who I was. I genuinely mean that but I also at the same time I can say ‘I’m sorry’ to all of those women, I can also thank them, and without the Bachelor franchise, I don’t know if this would have ever come out.” Underwood first made headlines in 2016 when, as a player on the Oakland Raiders' practice squad, he publicly asked out U.S. Gymnastics champion Aly Raisman, whom he later dated. That led him to competing on The Bachelorette 2018 and becoming The Bachelor in 2019.

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• Netflix has been filming Colton Underwood's coming out journey for a docuseries
• Colton Underwood obliquely addressed the Cassie Randolph harassment allegations in GMA interview, offering an apology: Randolph, who won Underwood's heart on The Bachelor, filed a restraining order against him three months after they broke up last year, accusing him of harassment, stalking and placing a tracking device on her car. She later dropped the restraining order. In his Good Morning America interview, Underwood apologized: “I got into a place with my personal life that was dark, and bad, and I can list a bunch of different things, but they’d all be excuses. I’d like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices.” He added: “I loved everything about her and it’s hard for me to articulate exactly what my emotions were in going through that relationship with her was because I obviously had an internal fight going on. I would just say that I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I’m sorry for any pain and emotional stress I caused. I wish that it wouldn’t have happened the way that it did. I wish that I had been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else.”
• Billy Eichner wondered if Colton Underwood might be gay when he appeared on his Bachelor season: "Maybe you're the first gay Bachelor and we don't even know," Eichner said, adding that "that is something you should look into."
• Andy Cohen tells Underwood "you're free now": Cohen and Underwood made headlines on March 20, 2020 when they separately announced they had tested positive for coronavirus within minutes of each other. "You’re free now, @colton. A toaster is on its way," Cohen tweeted with a rainbow flag emoji, adding: "Great interview @RobinRoberts."
• Some Bachelor Nation fans want Underwood to get a second chance at finding love as the first gay Bachelor
• A year ago, Underwood said The Bachelor helped him realize he wasn't gay. Now he credits The Bachelor for helping him come out as gay.