Colton Underwood says that before coming out as gay in 2021, he limited his physical relationships with men to married “straight” men—because he feared someone could expose him and derail his career. He called the thinking “messed-up,” but said it felt like th
Colton Underwood didn’t just keep his sexuality private before coming out as gay in 2021—he built a rule for who he would allow himself to be physical with.
On the We Need to Talk podcast, Underwood said he was “very careful” while exploring his sexuality and getting physical with men. He described a fear that someone might expose him publicly, with consequences that could reach far beyond his personal life.
“To protect myself, I would only hook up with married men. [Married] ‘straight’ men. So that was sort of my rule that I would never break. When I was in the closet, that would be the only time I would ever hook up with men was if they were married… because they had more to lose than I did.”
Underwood said he believed married men were a safer option because the person trying to “ruin his career” would also be risking their family life. He acknowledged the logic was wrong, calling it a “messed-up” thing to think, but said he followed it to protect himself from any potential threat.
Now that he has come out, Underwood said he looks back differently. He believes that back then, he should have shown more of a “vulnerable” side and spoken more openly about what struggling with his sexuality felt like.
“I think there could have been something just interesting in that conversation,” he added.
The television personality previously discussed his sexuality publicly in an interview with Good Morning America five years ago. He said, “I’ve ran from myself for a long time. I’ve hated myself for a long time. And I’m gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it. And the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know.”.
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