Bachelor Alum Colton Underwood Comes Out as Gay

The Bachelor‘s Colton Underwood is setting the record straight about his sexuality…

Bachelor alum Colton Underwood has come out as gay. In an interview with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts that aired on Wednesday, Underwood — who headlined Season 23 of the ABC reality juggernaut — confirmed the longstanding rumour.

“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.”

Also in the GMA interview, Underwood admitted that hiding his sexuality led him down a “dark and bad” path, one that included “suicidal thoughts.” Recalling one such incident, “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.”

Prior to his ascension to Bachelor leading man in 2019, Underwood appeared as a contestant in Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette. His openness about being a virgin was a plot point The Bachelor seized on. It also fueled rumors that he was gay — speculation he had previously denied.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight last May, the 29-year-old former football pro confessed that 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.” It was through his experience on The Bachelor that he realized, “I’m straight and that I’m very attracted to women,” he told ET at the time, adding, “It would’ve been OK if I was [gay], too.”