The Bachelor’s Colton Underwood Comes Out as Gay: WATCH

Almost a year to the day after penning a memoir where he asserted his heterosexuality, Bachelor star Colton Underwood has come out as a gay man.

According to The Hollywood Reporter: Underwood returned to TV on Wednesday morning for a revealing interview. The former Bachelor star, who led the 2019 season of the ABC reality dating franchise, said on Good Morning America that he is gay. “Obviously, this year has 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; I’ve hated myself for a long time. And, I’m gay,” he said during an exclusive sitdown with Robin Roberts for ABC News’ GMA. “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’m still nervous.”

The conversation had been billed as a “deeply personal” interview, with Underwood saying only, “It’s been a journey, for sure,” in a brief Tuesday night teaser.

When his book was released last year Underwood said that the show “taught him that he was heterosexual.”

At the time, Underwood talked about his questioning his sexuality in his new book, The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV, and now he says he knows he’s straight. “[The show taught me] that I’m straight and I’m very, very attracted to Cassie [Randolph] and women — but it would have been OK if it would have been the other way too,” Underwood told “Entertainment Tonight.” “I think that’s the biggest message I have for people.” Underwood, 28, was the show’s first virgin “Bachelor,”  having initially shared that he was a Christian and waiting when he competed for Becca Kufrin’s heart during the 2018 season of The Bachelorette. The former football player said revealing his virginity on The Bachelorette kicked off speculation about his sexuality. “Even now, I still battle gay rumors when I’m with Cassie, but that’s how it was for me as a young kid in grade school and high school,” he said. “I can deal with them now.”

In the pre-taped interview, Underwood elaborated about previously having suicidal thoughts. “There was a moment in L.A. that I woke up and I didn’t think I was going to wake up. I didn’t have the intentions of waking up. And I did. And for me, I think that was my wake-up call of, ‘This is your life. Take back control.'” Of those thoughts, he now shared, “I don’t feel that anymore.”

As for his time on the Bachelor franchise, Roberts asked him to address people who will feel that he may have misled the women and the public by searching for a wife on television. “Do I regret being the Bachelor and do I regret handling it the way I did? I do. I do think I could have handled it better,” he said. “I just wish I wouldn’t have dragged people into my own mess of figuring out who I was. I genuinely mean that.”

Since coming out to his friends and family, he said their responses made him feel that he wished he had had more faith in those people in his life. “The only reason I’m sitting down with you today is because I have the love and support of my friends and my family.”

Speaking with Roberts on GMA, Underwood confirmed that was indeed a virgin before going on the show and said, “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 that.”

He added, “I put myself in really bad situations on purpose. I put myself in these situations so I could try to force myself to be straight.”

In closing the interview, he offered a message to his younger self in hopes that he could reach others: “You’re going to get through it. Keep fighting for you. Keep choosing you, every morning. And, when the time is right and you’re ready, do it on your own time.”

JUST IN: Former “Bachelor” star @Colton Underwood speaks his truth and comes out to @robinroberts: “I’m gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it… I’m the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life.” https://t.co/PoYJUAPBpA pic.twitter.com/isP7SptUu7

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 14, 2021