Former star “Bachelor” star Colton Underwood has revealed he’s gay in an emotional interview on ABC’s Good Morning America with Robin Roberts on Wednesday morning.
Underwood said he learned some difficult truths about himself during quarantine and that is the reason he came forward with the news.
“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 or what they’ve been 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 earlier this year and have been processing it,” Underwood told Roberts. “The next step in all of this was sort of letting people know. I’m still nervous, but it’s been a journey for sure.”
Roberts asked what gave him courage to come out and Underwood cited his mental health and overall state of mind. She also asked him if he ever thought about harming himself during this process.
I would rather have died than say ‘I’m gay,’ and I think that was sort of my wake up call,” he said. “There was a moment in L.A. that I woke up and I didn’t think I was going to wake up,” he said. “I didn’t have the intentions of waking up, and I did. And I think for me that was my wake up call, that, ‘This is your life. Take back control.’ I think looking back even beyond that is even just suicidal thoughts and driving my car close to a cliff, like, ‘Oh, if this goes off the cliff, it’s not that big of a deal.’ I don’t feel that anymore.”
Underwood first joined the ABC dating show in 2018 as a contestant on “The Bachelorette.” He then joined the cast of “Bachelor in Paradise” in Season 5, before becoming “The Bachelor” in 2019 for its 23rd season.
He was heavily promoted as “The Virgin Bachelor” and his virginity was a major storyline throughout his season.
“I do think I could have handled it better,” Underwood said of his time on the show. “I can say ‘I’m sorry’ to all of those women, I can also say ‘thank you,’ because without them and without the ‘Bachelor’ franchise, I don’t know if this would have ever come out.”
“I fully was a virgin before that, and I could never give anybody a good enough answer about why I was a virgin. The truth is I was the ‘Virgin Bachelor’ because I was gay, and I didn’t know how to handle it,” he added.
