Colton Underwood Comes Out and Comes Clean
The New York Times
The former “Bachelor” star announced he is gay on national TV in April. A new Netflix reality series seeks to share his journey and address the criticism.
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Spend 10 seconds with Colton Underwood, and you get why “The Bachelor” figured he was a home run. He has a boy-next-door smile and an aw-shucks manner. He’s brawny. He hikes.
But in April, in an emotional interview on “Good Morning America,” the former N.F.L. linebacker, who made hearts flutter two years ago as the virginal leading man on ABC’s aggressively heterosexual hit dating franchise “The Bachelor,” said the no-going-back words “I’m gay.”
Underwood, 29, brawls with contradictions. He’s a Christian who refuses to believe in the version of God he learned about as a Catholic altar boy. He loves football, but the locker room is where he felt most afraid to reveal his true self.