Colton Underwood Opens Up About Affairs With Married Men and His Journey to Coming Out as Gay

Colton Underwood, 34, has revealed deeply personal details about his pre-coming-out life, discussing his past relationships with married men and the lengths he went to conceal his sexuality. Speaking on the We Need to Talk podcast, the former football player and reality television star explained that he deliberately limited his encounters with married men to protect himself from being outed, fearing such a revelation would damage both his professional football aspirations and his television career. "They had more to lose than I did," Underwood said of the married men involved.

Underwood's journey through the reality television world played a significant role in his attempts to hide his true identity. He first appeared on Becca Kufrin's season of The Bachelorette before being selected as the lead of The Bachelor in 2019. During his season, he became known as the "Virgin Bachelor" after the show's producers highlighted his virginity. However, Underwood has now disclosed that his decision to remain a virgin was driven by deeper issues than what was publicly portrayed. "There were so many reasons why I was a virgin… obviously, the one that I didn't tell publicly was my struggle with my sexuality," he explained.

Underwood acknowledged that accepting The Bachelor role was partly an attempt to convince himself he was heterosexual. "I'm going to be so publicly straight that I will never be able to be gay again," he recalled thinking at the time. This strategy ultimately proved unsuccessful, as Underwood publicly came out as gay in 2021. Since then, his life has undergone significant changes. He is now married to political strategist Jordan C. Brown-Underwood, and the couple welcomed their son, Bishop Colton Brown-Underwood, via surrogacy on September 26, 2024.