Colton Underwood is seemingly upset his ex-girlfriend Cassie Randolph chose to speak about their breakup on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons -- Ever! earlier this week, although Cassie didn't say much about their failed relationship at all.

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"These last few weeks have been challenging because, by now, you all know I'm an open book and I enjoy sharing my life with y'all," Colton, 28, wrote Thursday on Instagram.

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"When our relationship ended we agreed to handle things as privately as possible as we attempted to navigate our new relationship as friends. I chose to do that since we were living in this interim period, but obviously a lot changed this week."

Cassie, who won Colton's heart on The Bachelor's 23rd season, took to her Instagram Stories on Monday night after her brief virtual interview with franchise host Chris Harrison aired on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons -- Ever!.

Cassie claimed to have agreed to the interview under the impression Harrison would not harp on her May 2020 split from Colton, but the edited version of the episode featured Cassie mainly talking about Colton, although she declined to reveal details about their breakup.

When Harrison asked what went wrong in her relationship and why she and Colton had decided to end things, Cassie said, "It's kind of a sensitive subject because I feel like we're still kind of going through it and it's still pretty emotional for both of us."

"And we haven't really talked about it publicly yet, and I don't know if either of us is ready," Cassie said, adding that it's been "really hard" to go through a breakup in the public eye.

"I mean, I've never gone through any of this before, so it was kind of hard to navigate it. We're on good terms and hanging in there."

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Colton continued in his Thursday Instagram post, "Every experience provides us with an opportunity for growth. If you've been kind enough to have followed our story, you've been with us through all of the ups and downs which have taught me so many lessons."

"I've come to realize when you're in the thick of it you just need to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective, in doing so I have gained so much clarity about what I want and more importantly what I need in a relationship."

"I'm so excited for this next chapter of my life with new stories and new people," he concluded. "I can't thank y'all enough for your understanding and your support during this time. Your messages mean a lot!"

But shortly after Monday night's episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons -- Ever! aired, Cassie insisted in her Instagram Stories she had remained very tight-lipped about her breakup with Colton on the special.

"I've been getting nasty messages from people saying, 'How rude of you, how disrespectful of you to go and talk all about your relationship and give so many details with Colton not being there. You are a terrible person,'" Cassie said in her Instagram Stories post.

"When, if you watched the interview, I said absolutely nothing -- like, absolutely nothing. That's not what it was about. That's not what it was supposed to be about."

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Cassie therefore admitted she was unhappy and "irritated" by what was televised from her interview with Harrison because the pair had discussed many other topics besides Colton that didn't get edited into the broadcast.

"So I'm a little irritated about a few things right now. Just watched The Bachelor interview that aired and I feel like I'm speaking to no one," Cassie complained in a video posted to her Instagram Stories.

"I've said this a million times: you guys cannot judge something that you know is edited and know nothing about. There was so much more that I talked about in that interview than just our relationship."

"In fact, I went on there telling them that I didn't want to talk about it and I wouldn't talk about it... Believe it or not, there's so much more to me than just my past relationship, and I think that's why I'm annoyed."

Just last week, Cassie admitted she's had an "awful few months" since parting ways from Colton, whom she dated for about 18 months before announcing their decision to call it quits on May 29.

Cassie apparently felt criticized and judged by strangers after her breakup with Colton and the stress got to be so much that she deleted her Instagram account for a month.

In terms of why Colton and Cassie split, Cassie reportedly initiated the conversation and a source recently told E! News, "Cassie was just not as ready for the settled-down life Colton wants right now and she tried to end it a few times."

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A People insider shared a similar explanation for what went wrong, saying Cassie wasn't ready to get married and the pair had essentially just become friends.

Colton and Cassie first announced their breakup on Instagram, with Colton writing he planned to "remain friends" with his ex.

"Its been a crazy few months to say the least, Cass and I have been doing a lot of self-reflecting. Sometimes people are just meant to be friends - and that's okay," he wrote in late May.

"We both have grown immensely and been through so much together - so this isn't the end of our story, it's the start of a whole new chapter for us."

Prior to their surprising decision to part ways, Colton had publicly discussed proposing marriage to Cassie and spending the rest of his life with her.

"We have decided we're not moving in together until we're married. So we have something to look forward to in that step," Colton said on the March 31 episode of Us Weekly's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast, adding that Cassie has been extremely busy with work and school.

"She still has her internship and some time to put into that and it takes a lot of work for her to do that and takes a lot of her energy and focus. I can't imagine having to plan for a wedding and we still don't want a long engagement. So we want to make sure that timing-wise it's all right."

In addition, Colton had said on the podcast he and Cassie were definitely "up for" more reality TV.

"We've both talked about that and we're very hopeful that something might happen. We don't know, but we're definitely onboard with it. I understand the risks involved... but we both like and enjoy being on-camera. I don't see anything wrong with saying that," Colton shared.

"We like opening up when we can and when we feel it's appropriate, so we wouldn't mind it."

In his new memoir, The First Time, Colton admitted he and Cassie briefly split and went their separate ways in August 2019, People reported.

"To put it very frank, after the show, we realized we weren't communicating as well as we once did," Colton revealed in the book that was published in March.

"Nobody was forcing us to talk about real things going on, so we let a lot of things build up... In a weird way, I kind of broke up with myself. I was like, I feel like we need to figure this out and in order to do that, we need space. She agreed. So it was a mutual thing."

Colton became a member of Bachelor Nation when he competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season in 2018.

After failing to win her heart, he gave Bachelor in Paradise a shot but then went on to become The Bachelor's Season 23 star.

When Colton starred on The Bachelor, his season ended prematurely when he fell in love with and selected Cassie over his other two remaining bachelorettes, Tayshia Adams and Hannah Godwin.

Colton had made up his mind before even finishing out his round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates.

Colton had therefore built up a lot of anticipation for his Fantasy Suite date with Cassie, and it seemed he was ready and willing to lose his virginity to her during their romantic evening together.

However, Cassie attempted to quit The Bachelor at that stage in the process because she didn't feel ready to get engaged after dating Colton for such a short period of time.

Colton nearly ended production because he was so devastated, but he fought for Cassie to stay and ultimately convinced her to give him another chance.

Cassie was hesitant to continue but decided to stick around for Colton now that pressure of an engagement was off the table, and then she proceeded to meet his family on the show and fall in love with him once filming wrapped.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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