The Bachelor alum Cassie Randolph has revealed the "horrible" way in which she found out her now ex-boyfriend Colton Underwood is gay.
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Colton and Cassie talked about getting engaged, but they went through a devastating breakup in May 2020 after 18 months of dating and then Colton announced, publicly, he's gay on Good Morning America in April 2021.
Multiple sources have said Cassie had no idea Colton was gay during their relationship, nor was she given a warning that he was going to come out as gay on national television.
"I found out the same way that everyone else did," Cassie told former The Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe on Tuesday's episode of her "Off the Vine" podcast, according to Us Weekly.
Cassie apparently first heard about the breaking news on social media.
"I was actually in Mexico on vacation with friends... But yeah, I found out, I think, through Snapchat on GMA. It was horrible. It was just, like, a shocking kind of feeling."
What started out as an amicable split turned nasty in June 2020 when Colton got angry about Cassie appearing on a Bachelor special after they had agreed to handle their breakup privately. Cassie thought she respected Colton's wishes and proceeded to accuse her ex of trying to "monetize" their breakup by writing about it in his "The First Time" memoir.
Colton allegedly put a tracking device on Cassie's car, sent her "unsettling" text messages, and would stand outside her apartment or her parents' house very late at night, which resulted in the restraining order against Colton that was ultimately dropped once a private agreement was reached in November 2020.
Cassie made her first public appearance on The Bachelor franchise on The Bachelor's Season 26 finale last week following her highly-publicized split from Colton.
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"I feel like people were so shocked that I was on," Cassie told Kaitlyn. "I would love to know why people thought it was such a big deal."
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Cassie said her time away from The Bachelor franchise was not even intentional, although many fans assumed she was hiding from the spotlight and didn't want to talk about her personal life.
"I don't think I even meant to not do it," Cassie explained. "I think it just kind of happened that way... If they ever wanted me to, like, make an appearance like the other night, it was super fun. So, I was like, 'Of course,' but it just never really comes up."
Cassie, however, admitted she isn't comfortable sharing details about Colton and their prior romance just yet.
"I haven't talked about it, so it's really hard for me to talk about it at all, or even know the right thing to say when addressing it," Cassie said.
"I feel so much pressure when asked about it that I would love to be able to be open and candid about things, but I'm just not there yet. I'm sure I will one day want to speak on it because there's just a lot there."
On Part 1 of The Bachelor's Season 26 finale on March 14, Cassie was asked to give Susie Evans some advice on how she should handle Clayton Echard's plea to give him another chance before the scene aired.
The situation is similar to what Cassie had gone through on The Bachelor 23, when she had threatened to quit Colton's season, which resulted in Colton dumping Tayshia Adams and Hannah Godwin and then trying to win Cassie back. (Susie, however, couldn't get over the fact Clayton had fallen in love with multiple women whereas Colton only loved Cassie and she wasn't sure she felt the same way).
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"I think the fact that Susie left in the first place just kind of shows, you know, she really stuck with her intuition and was right. As hard as it was, she had to leave."
Cassie went on to say that she hoped Susie didn't feel pressure to take Clayton back against her gut instincts and better judgement.
"I hope that... she just doesn't feel pressure [to take him back] -- whether that's pressure from him to have a relationship or pressure to give a happy ending to the show or pressure because, when she initially came on the show, she wanted to find [an ideal relationship]. I just hope that she sticks with her intuition."
Viewers were therefore left wondering if Cassie had felt pressure to stay with Colton when he begged her to continue dating him and meet his family on the show in 2019.
"I had a feeling that when I was saying that, people were gonna allude to that," Cassie noted.
"It was so long ago now... There was definitely an aspect of pressure, obviously, because you're on this huge national show, and you're like, 'Any decision I make, people are gonna judge.' It's kinda hard to know why I did what I did."
Cassie is sure, however, that she would have liked more time when making the decision whether to quit the show or give Colton a chance.
"It's overwhelming," Cassie acknowledged.
"There's so much happening. 'But do I want to? Is this the right decision for me? Is it the right decision for him, for the show?' It would have been nice to have a week to think about things... Instead, you're sitting there on the spot like, 'What should I do?' [It's] this huge decision."
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But The Bachelor is now in Cassie's rearview mirror, as she's been happily dating a family friend, musician Brighton Reinhardt, since May 2021.
"He's a great person. It's very, like, natural. So easy, which I never understood until this [relationship]," Cassie gushed of her boyfriend.
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When asked if she and Brighton are considering taking their romance to the next level, with maybe an engagement, Cassie shared, "We've definitely talked about the future. There's no, like, plans on the horizon that I am aware of."
Colton, who is now engaged to political strategist Jordan C. Brown, told GMA last year that he realized he was different at the age of six and came to the conclusion he's gay when he was a freshman in high school.
Colton said he hated himself "for a long time" and was "a miserable person living as a shell of a human being" while pretending to be straight for well over a decade.
In addition to having starred on The Bachelor, Colton also appeared on two other seasons of The Bachelor franchise in which he dated women on television: The Bachelorette 14 starring Becca Kufrin and Bachelor in Paradise 5 when he dated Tia Booth.
Colton has said in the press he thought being the Bachelor and dating Cassie could make him straight but he was ultimately lying to himself and he feels badly for having hurt so many women on his season.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
