On Wednesday morning, Colton Underwood sat down with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts to make a big announcement: He is gay.

“I’ve ran from myself for a long time. I’ve hated myself for a long time. I’m gay and I came to terms with that earlier this year," he told Roberts.

The interview packed a lot into less than 15 minutes. Underwood discussed the ways in which growing up in the Catholic Church and in the uber-macho world of professional football impacted his desire to avoid reckoning with his sexual identity. He talked about the mental health issues this repression wrought, culminating in a morning last year on which he “didn’t have the intentions of waking up.” He spoke about the heterosexual cachet of “The Bachelor” franchise, so powerful that when he was named the titular lead, he remembers “praying to God the morning I found out I was the Bachelor and thanking him for making me straight.”

He also addressed ex-girlfriend Cassie Randolph, although Roberts did not press him much on the temporary restraining order Randolph was granted against Underwood in September 2020.

“I would like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices,” said Underwood. “I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I’m sorry for any pain and emotional stress I caused. I wish it wouldn’t have happened the way it did. I wish I would have been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else.” 

We felt like Colton’s interview — and all of the discourse around it — deserved more than a bonus chat. (There are layers! So many complex layers!)

So we talked about it with the wonderful Daryn Carp, host of PeopleTV’s Reality Check, and podcasts “Scissoring Isn’t A Thing” and “Shaken And Disturbed.” In our hour-long conversation, the three of us all sorted through our reactions to the news, the broader implications of Colton’s coming out, how to ensure Cassie’s pain is accounted for in this moment, and the reports that he will be starring in a Netflix series currently being filmed.

We also didn’t want this one to be behind any paywalls, so we are making this post and the episode public. (You can copy the RSS feed from this newsletter into your podcast app of choice, or you can search Rich Text directly on Spotify.)

Happy listening, friends 🌹

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