The Bachelor alum Colton Underwood has been criticized for joking about his split from Cassie Randolph "too soon."
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The former The Bachelor star, 28, and Cassie, 25, announced they had decided to go their separate ways on May 29 after about 18 months of dating and frequent talk of an engagement and spending the rest of their lives together.
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While Colton seemed crazy about Cassie and reportedly very "upset" about their breakup, he's already cracking jokes, which hasn't gone over well with The Bachelor fans everywhere.
On Sunday, the night before ABC aired the first episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever! starring Season Lowe, Sean took to Instagram to promote the three-hour recap of The Bachelor's seventeenth season.
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"Tomorrow night, my entire season is airing in a condensed 3 hour format for Bachelor G.O.A.T. Really excited to share my journey with you all," Sean, 36, wrote alongside a photo of himself proposing to his now-wife Catherine Giudici during the finale that aired in 2013.
"Also excited to get that 15 minutes of fame back I've been desperately searching for the past seven years. No spoilers please."
Colton, who starred on The Bachelor's 23rd season last year, quipped in the comments section of Sean's post, according to Us Weekly, "Hopefully you are still with her!"
Comments from fans then poured in, with many of them saying it was "too soon" for Colton to poke fun at his failed relationship with Cassie.
On June 9 after The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever! aired, Sean almost seemed to respond to Colton's remark when he captioned Instagram photos with Catherine, "It's not that hard. Just find the one person on the planet you want to spend all your time with and marry her."
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Sean and Catherine have welcomed three children together since getting married in 2014.
When Colton and Cassie announced their breakup, they both insisted it was "mutual" and they intend to remain friends given they've been through so much together and have such respect for one another.
Colton wrote on Instagram on May 29, "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. 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."
For her part, Cassie shared on her Instagram account, "I want to say this is one of the hardest things I have had to share... I love Colton very much and have an enormous amount of respect for him. We have both learned and grown so much these past couple years and will always have each others back."
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In terms of why Colton and Cassie split, a source 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."
Another source told E! News that Cassie was the one to "initiate the conversation" although both individuals recognized their relationship had run its course.
A People insider shared a similar explanation for what went wrong, saying the pair simply weren't on the same page and Colton and Cassie had essentially just become friends.
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"Colton really wanted to settle down and get married -- he's been ready for a long time," the inside said. "And Cassie just wasn't ready. They both knew it wasn't going to work."
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Quarantining together at Cassie's parents' home in Huntington Beach, CA, in recent months among the coronavirus pandemic reportedly pulled the blinders off their eyes and made Colton and Cassie realize their romance wasn't exactly passionate.
Colton announced on March 20 that he had tested positive for COVID-19, but he eventually made "a full recovery" thanks to Cassie taking care of him. Once he was back feeling like his old self again, Colton traveled to Colorado alone to see his family, which sparked rumors there was trouble in paradise with Cassie.
But everything seemed fine between the couple back in March, when Colton once again brought up the idea of proposing marriage to Cassie.
"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."
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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.
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"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.
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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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