‘Bachelor’ Star Colton Underwood Reveals He’s Gay in Emotional ‘GMA’ Interview

Former “Bachelor” star Colton Underwood sat down with Robin Roberts on Wednesday morning for a deeply personal interview, revealing that he is gay.

In the interview, Underwood, who is also a former pro football player, was very emotional in admitting the truths he learned about himself during quarantine.

“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. 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,” he told Roberts. “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.”

“I’m emotional, but I’m emotional in such a good, happy, positive way,” he continued. “

Underwood was first introduced to viewers in 2018, as a contestant on Becca Kufrin’s season of “The Bachelorette.” He then joined the cast of “Bachelor In Paradise” Season 5, before becoming “The Bachelor” in 2019 for its 23rd season.

Underwood was heavily marketed as “The Virgin Bachelor,” and his virginity was a major storyline throughout his season — something that he later told Variety he believed was “overblown,” but not necessarily exploited.

Ever since starring as “The Bachelor,” Underwood had continued to speak about his virginity and sexuality. In a media interview last year, he said that “The Bachelor” helped him realize that he was not gay, after struggling with his sexuality. And in a book he published in 2020, “The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV,” he revealed that growing up, people would question whether he was gay, since he was a virgin and a football player.

Underwood was a tight end at Illinois State, was signed by the San Diego Chargers in 2014 as a free agent in 2014, and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles.

In an interview with Variety last year, Underwood spoke about his struggle with his sexuality growing up, explaining, “It was challenging for me to be standing up for my values and my beliefs, and looking back now, growing up in sort of a hyper-masculine culture as football or a conservative family…I always felt like I was on the defense. It was one of those things when you hear it so often and so much, you start believing it or you start questioning things. 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 the years following his time on “The Bachelor,” Underwood has stayed in the headlines, not only for his commentary about his own sexuality, but also for personal legal matters between him and his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Randolph, the contestant he met on the reality TV show with whom he was in a relationship for a year-and-a-half. After breaking up in 2020, Randolph filed a restraining order, accusing Underwood of stalking and harassing her, and filed a police report with claims that he had put a tracking device on her car. Later, Randolph dismissed the restraining order against Underwood and requested to drop the police investigation.

Roberts, one of the most prominent broadcasters of all time, was a seamless fit to speak with Underwood. Like Underwood, Roberts is deeply familiar with the sports world, having joined “GMA” after a star-making career as a sports anchor and a long tenure at ESPN. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012, and has been honored for her stature as a LGBTQ leader, ever since coming out in a 2013 Facebook post, where she acknowledged her longtime partner, Amber Laign.

Prior to the interview airing, Roberts wrote on her Twitter that she “had the opportunity to spend time” with Underwood, who “has something very personal he wants to share.”

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