Colton Underwood’s Finally Addressing The Traitors Backlash
Fans have been calling out his controversial past.
Spoiler warning: Spoilers ahead for The Traitors Season 4. Colton Underwood’s time in The Traitors castle officially came to an end in Episode 8. While he was popular among the cast during his time on the show, fans have been critical about his appearance on the hit reality series, considering his controversial past. Now, Underwood is finally addressing the backlash.
ICYMI, Underwood rose to fame as The Bachelor in 2019. Following his stint on the show, he continued a relationship with his final pick: Cassie Randolph. However, in May 2020, the couple broke up — and Randolph was later granted a restraining order against her ex after she alleged that he stalked and harassed her, claiming he placed a tracking device on her car. A few months later, in November 2020, she dropped the restraining order after they privately settled the matter. Then, in April 2021, Underwood came out as gay on Good Morning America and publicly apologized to his ex, stating “I would like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices.”
Surprisingly, Underwood’s past was not discussed during his time on The Traitors — and in post-show interviews, he refused to discuss the situation. (In their January story with Underwood, Entertainment Weekly even noted that they were “not allowed” to ask any Randolph-related questions “as a condition of the interview.”)
However, that all changed in a new interview with Rolling Stone, published Feb. 6. When asked how he felt about the conversation surrounding his polarizing past, Underwood got candid about the situation. “I totally understand that when they research me, you can find [information about the case],” he said. “What I would say is, I would hope nobody would take one of the darkest and worst moments of my life and use that to define me.”
According to him, there’s some inaccuracies and “context” missing in the public conversation. “The context that is lacking is the pressure, the threats, and the blackmail I was dealing with at the time. The isolation. I wasn’t out,” he added. “I had to come out to my professional team before I was able to come out to my family, and I was still coming out to myself. It took a lot of personal work.”
“I hope a lot of people understand that it wasn’t like I was trying to lie or deceive. I was fully convinced that the more that I tried to be straight, I could actually do it. It put me in a position that I would hope no other closeted person and or human being would put themselves in. I hit rock bottom,” he continued. “Since all of that happened, I have said I’m sorry for the mistakes that I’ve made in my past — the accountability that I’ve taken, I try to move forward with the understanding of the growth and who I am in this part of my life.”
Underwood said he didn’t want to “rehash every little detail” to clarify the narrative, but emphasized that he’s evolved since then. “I am in such a different place. That’s also what makes this situation much easier than it was in 2020,” he added, “When all this was first happening, I was alone and didn’t have a support system that I do now.”
“This was a private matter that was handled by the parties privately,” he added. “This happened six years ago, and there’s been a lot of life that has happened. There’s been a lot of lessons learned.”
