Former star of The Bachelor and NFL player Colton Underwood came out as gay.
Underwood, who starred on the ABC reality TV series in 2019, revealed his sexuality in an interview with Good Morning America that aired on Wednesday.
“I’ve ran from myself for a long time. I’ve hated myself for a long time,” Underwood told co-host Robin Roberts. “And I’m gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it. And the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know.”
“I’ve known that I’ve been different since the age of 6,” he added. “And I couldn’t process it, and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was until high school.”
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The former NFL player, who has spoken frequently in public about his Christian faith, was the star of Season 23 of The Bachelor, a reality dating show revolving around a single man choosing a partner out of a large group of women. Underwood appeared on the show’s counterpart, The Bachelorette, in 2018.
“I literally remember praying to God the morning I found out I was the bachelor and thanking him for making me straight,” he said during Wednesday’s interview.
“I remember that vividly of saying, ‘Finally, you’re letting me be straight. Finally, you’re giving me a wife, a fiance. Then I’m going to have the kids, and then I’m going to have the house,’” he continued.
Underwood said he came to terms with his sexuality during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I got to a place where I didn’t think I was ever going to share this,” he said. “I would have rather died than say I’m gay, and I think that was sort of my wake-up call.”
He also addressed how he would respond to those who think he misled the public and the women whom he dated. Underwood has dated former Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and Bachelor contestant Cassie Randolph, who was Underwoods’s final choice from his season. Randolph accused him of stalking her and filed a restraining order against him after their breakup in 2020. The order was later dropped at Randolph’s request.
“I would understand why they’d think that way,” he said. “I do think I could have handled it better.”
During the season’s airing, Underwood was panned as unique among contestants in The Bachelor’s history as the show’s first virgin bachelor.
“[Being a virgin] needs to be normalized. It’s just who I am and what I believe in,” he told People in 2018. “I hold a lot of value in it, and I hold it to a high standard. I’m just waiting for the right heart.”
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ABC applauded Underwood’s announcement, telling the Washington Examiner that it celebrates “his strength and courage to live his truth.”
