The Bachelor alum Colton Underwood has celebrated his 30th birthday with boyfriend Jordan C. Brown, and it was apparently an "unforgettable night."
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"A celebration to close out my 20's," Colton captioned a slideshow of photos.
"Thank you to my friends and family for an unforgettable night. I love you all. I have a good feeling about my 30's."
The Season 23 The Bachelor star concluded his post with a heart and a thumbs-up emoji, and his slideshow of pictures included two sweet moments with Jordan, 39.
Not only did Jordan apparently treat Colton to a big birthday cake at an outdoor restaurant where they celebrated with friends, but Colton also posted a photo in which he and his boyfriend were smiling big and Jordan had his arm wrapped around the former football player.
Colton also uploaded a photo of himself kissing Jordan on the cheek via his Instagram Story, which has since expired, according to People.
"Thank you for planning such an unforgettable night," Colton reportedly wrote to Jordan.
Colton announced to the world he's gay in a Good Morning America interview that aired in April 2021, and he and Jordan went Instagram official in early December.
One day after Coming Out Colton premiered December 3 on Netflix, Colton posted photos of the pair on his Instagram Story and wrote to Jordan, "Happy birthday to my dog-loving, family man, corn-fed love."
Within a month of making their relationship public, Colton and Jordan purchased a $3 million home together in Sherman Oaks, CA.
One image featured Jordan's arm around Colton, who in turn rested his hand on his boyfriend's leg. Both men were smiling big in the photo with the word "Love" written above their heads.
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Colton gushed about Jordan last month, revealing to Us Weekly, "I'm happy, I'm in love and I'm in a good position."
By that time, Colton and Jordan had also met each other's families.
"Everything as far as that goes has been pretty smooth... There's still things to work through right now... [But] the friends that I have, the support group that I have has been so helpful and impactful," Colton shared.
Colton, however, ultimately decided against featuring Jordan in his Netflix docu-reality series.
"I have been through that. I have done that. Even going into the show, that was one of the conversations with the production company," Colton explained late last year.
"I'm not in a space right now to really, like, put myself out there like that," he added. "I had a lot of self-discovery to do."
Colton assured Us that he was "not hiding" his relationship but just wanted some privacy for the start of his first gay relationship.
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"I don't want to speak in definitives right now because as I learned, I'm growing and I want to give myself space to really explore new things at the moment," Colton recently said.
"I've definitely drawn boundaries on that. Having a public relationship, for me, was not healthy. I just think right now I'm really sort of protecting and guarding what I have."
Before officially posting photos with one another, Colton made his attraction to Jordan known by commenting on a picture of Jordan wearing a suit to the Baby 2 Baby gala in November.
Colton commented with a fire and a heart emoji.
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Colton and Jordan were first linked in September 2021, when they were photographed kissing and flirting during a romantic getaway to a Four Seasons resort in Maui, HI.
According to an eyewitness, the Season 23 The Bachelor star was "making out and snuggling" with Jordan by the hotel pool, Us reported at the time.
"They were tanning and swimming. They were very out in the open and not hiding their PDA!" the eyewitness added.
Colton publicly declared he's gay following his devastating breakup from The Bachelor 23 winner Cassie Randolph in May 2020 after 18 months of dating.
The former pro football player shared on GMA in April 2021 how he had never experienced an "emotional connection" with a person of the same sex before.
"I'm looking for someone who can push me and challenge me in all the right ways. I still have a long ways to go. I'm still learning," Colton said at the time.
In May, Colton reportedly conducted a Q&A with his followers on Instagram and ranted about an intrusive question asking how many men he had hooked up with.
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"I understand you might know me from The Bachelor where I shared a lot about my personal life. I have set boundaries and I'm respecting myself in a way that will lead me to a healthier life."
Colton starred on The Bachelor in 2019 after failing to win Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth edition. He also dated Tia Booth before and during his stint on Bachelor in Paradise's fifth season, which showed Colton breaking up with the Arkansas native.
After coming out as gay in April, Colton dished about what his life was like behind closed doors prior to appearing on The Bachelorette in 2018.
"I'll say this: I was 'The Virgin Bachelor,' but I did experiment with men prior to being on The Bachelorette," Colton told Variety, before disclosing he had a few sexual encounters with men when he was in his twenties but never had sex with a man or woman prior to his time on The Bachelor franchise.
"When I say 'hookups,' not sex," confirmed Colton, who had met these men under a false name in 2016 or 2017 through a dating app called Grindr.
"I want to make that very clear that I did not have sex with a man, prior to that."
Colton's prior "Virgin Bachelor" label resulted in fans anticipating his Fantasy-Suite decisions on The Bachelor and wondering if he was going to have sex with Cassie.
"I never asked to be labeled as the virgin bachelor and have people feel the security to ask me questions about my sex life," Colton reportedly explained in the spring.
"It just happened and during that time I thought I had no other choice but to just go with it or the network would be mad. I know differently now. I'll share what I want and this won't be one of those things."
Colton previously told Variety that he constantly worried about being "outed" by one of the men he had hooked up with. Colton feared being exposed and seeing his long-kept secret sold to the tabloids.
"I remember feeling so guilty, like 'What the hell am I doing?'" Colton recalled of his gay encounters.
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Colton called himself "a miserable person living as a shell of a human being" while pretending to be straight for well over a decade.
Cassie, for example, had no idea Colton was gay during their entire year-and-a-half long relationship and only learned his sexual orientation when The Bachelor star came out publicly in April, according to People.
Colton has said in the press he went through a very dark time following his breakup with Cassie and even attempted suicide one evening.
Colton, who felt "different" at age six and realized he was gay in high school, shared with GMA co-host Robin Roberts, however, that after hating himself for a long time, he finally accepted his sexuality in early 2021 and has never been happier or healthier.
Cassie has since moved on and is happily dating boyfriend Brighton Reinhardt.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
