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Colton Underwood,The Bachelorseason 23s leading man anda prominent figurein the franchise, has come out as gay.
For me, Ive ran from myself for a long time.
Ive hated myself for a long time.
And Im gay, he explained.
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.
Im still nervous, but yeah, its been a journey for sure.
He also knew that he was different since the age of 6 in terms of being gay.
I got to a place where I never thought I would share this.
I didnt have the intentions of waking up.
And for me, I think that was my wake-up call of, This is your life.
I do think I could have handled it better, he said.
I just wish I wouldnt have dragged people into my own mess of figuring out who I was.
I genuinely mean that.
I can also sit here and say Im sorry to all of those women.
Underwood and hisBachelorseasons winner, Cassie Randolph,split last summer after two years of dating.
Randolphproceededto drop the temporary restraining order in November.
I would like to say sorry with how things ended.
I made a lot of bad choices, Underwood said about Randolph.
And that only made it harder and more confusing for me.
I loved everything about her.
And that only made it harder and more confusing for me.
Im sorry for the pain and emotional stress I caused.
I wish it wouldnt have happened the way it did.
I wish that I would have been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else.
Underwood previously alluded to his sexualityin his memoir,The First Time,which was released in March 2020.
