Colton Underwood Sets The Record Straight About His Sexuality In New Interview With Reality Steve

Colton Underwood addressed rumors about his sexuality in a surprising new interview with Reality Steve.

Two months after his split from Cassie Randolph, The Bachelor star denied that the mysterious breakup had anything to do with infidelity or his sexuality.

In the interview with Reality Steve’s podcast, which can be heard here, Colton noted that he wrote extensively about the topic in his tell-all memoir, The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV, which was released in March, but that rumors about his sexuality continue to swirl since his romance with Cassie ended.

“In regards to those rumors, I addressed it pretty heavily in the book and I’ve gone through it throughout my whole entire life. And of course, it doesn’t help being on a national stage for the mental health aspect. But the bottom line is, I’m not gay. I have love and support for anybody in the LGBTQ community and support that, and love is love at the end of the day.”

The Bachelor star — whose virginity at age 26 was a big focus on his season — added he’s “used” to being asked these types of questions and feels he’ll never be able to satisfy everyone with his response.

“I’m sort of used to it at this point, but I don’t think I’m ever going to give a good enough answer,” he admitted, per E! News. “I’m always going to almost feel like I’m on defense probably for a very long time.”

Fans know that in The First Time, Colton wrote that he was teased relentlessly when he was a kid. In an excerpt from the book posted by People, he explained that when he was the captain of the football team in high school, he avoided parties to focus on athletics and abstained from sex due to his religious values.

The future NFL player revealed that after his classmates began to circulate rumors that he was gay, it made him question if it was true. He began to think “maybe” he was gay because the captain of the football team “should” be having sex and drinking, but he wasn’t.

Colton also admitted that he internalized his concerns over his sexuality and didn’t date in high school. When he was later cast as ABC’s leading man in 2019, he was announced as the show’s first-ever “Virgin Bachelor,” and even as his season was airing, he battled the gay rumors as people accused him of “hiding” his sexuality.

In the Reality Steve interview, Colton admitted that he felt like “such a piece of meat” when a female fan groped him at a charity event last year. Things got so “dark” for him that he experienced social anxiety and had to be medicated while his Bachelor season was airing.