The Bachelor's Colton Underwood Comes Out as Gay: 'I Ran From Myself for a Long Time'

Colton Underwood, a star of ABC's The Bachelor franchise, opened up about his sexuality in an interview with Good Morning America's Robin Roberts.

Underwood, who starred on The Bachelor Season 23, came out as gay during the interview.

‘I ran from myself for a long time, hating myself for a long time, and… I’m gay,” he told Roberts.

“And I came to terms with that earlier this year, and I have been processing it. And the next step in all of this was sort of to let people know. I’m still nervous, but it’s been a journey for sure.

“I’m the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life,” he added, “and that means the world to me.”

Underwood revealed that he knew at age 6 that he felt different, and by high school, he recognized that he was gay.

He shared that he had negative connotations about being gay, however.

After being signed up to lead The Bachelor in 2019, he said he remembered waking up in the morning thanking God for "making" him straight.

Underwood admitted that hiding his sexuality led him down a “dark and bad” path, one that included “suicidal thoughts.”

“There was a moment in L.A. [where] 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 — [but] I did. For me, that was my wake-up call of, like, ‘This is your life. Take back control.’ You know, 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.”

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight last May, the 29-year-old former football pro revealed his own uncertainty about his sexuality was one of the reasons he has abstained from sex.

“I never acted on anything,” he said.

“There were questions there, and I either internalized it or moved forward with football.”

“I’m straight, and that I’m very attracted to women,” he told ET at the time.

“It would’ve been OK if I was [gay], too.”

Underwood’s ex-Bachelor nation girlfriend Cassie Randolph filed a restraining order against him in which she accused him of stalking and harassing her.

She later dismissed the order.

“I’d like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices,” Underwood said of Cassie during the interview.

“I would just say that I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. … I wish that it wouldn’t have happened the way that it did. I wish that I had been courageous enough to fix myself before I hurt anyone else.”

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

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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.