Colton Underwood isn't beating around the rose bush.
Three years after he starred on The Bachelor, the 30-year-old had some choice words for how the franchise could do better. For starters, he thinks the ABC love hunt should be "listening to its former leads and listening to its contestants," he said on the March 7 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and also "providing help for them when they need it after the show because they really come in and change your life and then sort of throw you to the wolves."
Indeed, his journey was a bit of a rollercoaster, to say the least. After appearing on Becca Kufrin's season of The Bachelorette and then season five of Bachelor in Paradise, he gave his final rose to Cassie Randolph on The Bachelor in 2019. Though the show ended, the drama didn't. In September 2020, four months after their split, she filed a restraining order and accused him of stalking and harassing her. (She has since dropped the case and Colton has apologized.)
Ultimately, Colton found his person off-camera. After coming out as gay during an April interview with Robin Roberts, he gave his final rose to political strategist Jordan C. Brown, the two announcing their engagement on Feb. 28.
"I was struggling with my sexuality but I had such a level of fear over being gay," he told People in December. "Now that I've been out to myself for a year, it's the healthiest and happiest I've ever felt. And there is nothing I would ever want to be but gay."
"2021 was the most transformative year of my life," he added in a February interview with the magazine. "Starting 2022 off with my best friend, teammate and now fiancé is something I never thought was going to be possible."
E! News has reached out to ABC for comment but has yet to hear back.
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