Colton Underwood Discusses Bachelor 'Regret' After Coming Out

Colton Underwood discussed if he had any regrets for appearing on a dating show where a man chooses a woman from a group of 25 to possibly wed in the wake of him coming out as gay.

On Wednesday, the former "Bachelor" star revealed his truth to "Good Morning America" and opened up to host Robin Roberts about his time on the ABC reality program.

"Do I regret being on the Bachelor? Do I regret handling it the way that I did? I do think I could have handled it better, I'll say that," he shared. "I just wish I wouldn't have dragged people into my own mess of figuring out who I was. I genuinely mean that."

"At the same time, I can sit here and say I'm sorry to all of those women, I can also say thank you," he added. "Without them and without the Bachelor franchise, I don't know if this would have ever came out."

He also specifically apologized to Cassie Randolph, whom he gave the final rose to during his season of the show. The two would date for over a year and endure a messy split in May 2020, where Cassie would on to file a restraining order against him, accusing him of stalking her, tracking her car, and harassing her and her friends from an anonymous phone number. The charges were eventually dropped.

"I would just say that I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart," he explained to Robin. "I'm sorry for any pain and emotional stress I caused. I wish that it wouldn't have happened the way that it did. I wish that I had been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else."

Colton first appeared on the 14th season of "The Bachelorette" starring Becca Kufrin, where he spoke openly about his choice to remain a virgin, which he claimed was for religious reasons. Moving on to star in "The Bachelor," Colton's virginity was still a hot topic.

"One thing about being labeled the virgin 'Bachelor' was I fully was a virgin," he told Robin. "I could never give anybody a good enough answer on why I was a virgin. The truth is -- I was a virgin bachelor because I was gay and I didn't know how to handle it."

Despite now feeling "the happiest and healthiest" he's ever been, Colton said it was a struggle to get to that point -- one that included suicidal thoughts.

"There was a moment in L.A. that I woke up, and I didn't think I was gonna wake up," he explained. "I didn't have the intentions of waking up, and I did. I think for me that was my wake-up call. Like, this is your life, take back control. Beyond that -- even just suicidal thoughts. I'm 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."

"I think overall the reason why now is because I got to a place where I didn't think I was ever going to share this. I would have rather died than say, 'I'm gay.'"