More than two years after publicly coming out as gay, Colton Underwood is updating fans on the fluidity of his sexuality.
Underwood, who was previously cast as The Bachelor on the reality show’s 23rd season in 2018, came out during an April 2021 interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.
“I’ve ran from myself for a long time, I’ve hated myself for a long time. I’m gay,” Underwood said at the time. “I came to terms with that earlier this year, and the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know.”
His announcement was initially met with mixed reactions as it seemed perfectly timed with the news he’d be documenting his journey on the Netflix reality show Coming Out Colton.
Since then, Underwood has found love with husband Jordan C. Brown, a political strategist for the Democratic party.
But now Underwood is disclosing that he only feels “75% gay.”
On Wednesday, the 31-year-old clarified how he identifies to his former Bachelor paramour, Hannah Brown.
“I still identify as a gay man, but on the spectrum, I would say I’m 75% gay,” Underwood revealed on Brown’s Better Tomorrow podcast, per People.
“But if I was to break it down into percentages, give or take, that’s about where it’s at,” he added.
“That might be confusing to some people, but I think that’s where masculine and feminine energy, the sliding scale and it changes — I think that’s the easiest way to explain my sexuality.”
While Underwood claimed to have never slept with women during his season of The Bachelor, he continues to have an “appreciation” for the ladies.
“There’s still an attraction and appreciation and emotional connection that I could still have with women, but I don’t want to pursue that,” he noted.
Although being with a woman is not completely out of the question, Underwood doesn’t believe he could find a “life partner” in a heterosexual relationship.
“That’s not my life partner,” he said. “My life partner is Jordan, a man, and that’s what I’ve always wanted, but I never felt comfortable saying that and I honestly didn’t even know that was the case until I sat with it and really figured it out.”
And while he may not have been living his truth when he was dating women, Underwood said he really was in love with them.
“I feel like I have been in love multiple times and with different women and I’ve taken things from those relationships and applied them to my relationship with my husband,” he shared. “I took bits and pieces of what I wanted from my relationship with women and just put it into a relationship with a man.”
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and Bachelor contestant Cassie Randolph are two of Underwood’s previous exes. To say his relationship with Randolph ended badly would be an understatement. After accusing him of stalking, she filed a temporary restraining order. The order was eventually dropped in November 2020.
