The Bachelor host Chris Harrison, who recently stepped aside from his hosting duties, has expressed support for Colton Underwood's decision to come out as gay.
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Shortly after Colton announced he's gay on the Wednesday episode of Good Morning America, Chris posted a photo of the pair on Instagram.
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"Very proud of you today," Chris, 49, captioned the image. "[Colton,] Happy to see you stand up and openly live your truth. You have my love and support my friend."
The last time Chris posted on social media was on February 13 when he apologized for defending The Bachelor alum Rachael Kirkconnell's racially-ignorant and racially-insensitive actions in the last several years, and so the longtime franchise host clearly broke his one month of silence to show his acceptance of Colton.
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Chris is not hosting The Bachelorette's upcoming seventeenth season, which is currently filming and stars Katie Thurston.
ABC replaced Chris with The Bachelorette alums Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams, but it remains unclear whether Chris will return for Bachelor in Paradise's seventh season this summer and/or Season 18 of The Bachelorette in Fall 2021 starring Michelle Young.
For Colton's part, the 29-year-old Denver resident admitted to GMA co-host Robin Roberts that he "came to terms" with being gay earlier this year after running from and hating himself "for a long time."
"I'm emotional, but I'm emotional in, like, such a good, happy, and positive way," Colton said.
"I'm the happiest and healthiest I've ever been in my life. And that means the world to me."
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Colton said he knew he was "different" at age six and realized for certain that he liked men in high school.
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"I used to wake up in the morning and pray for [God] to take the gay away. I used to pray for him to change me... I tried to force myself to be straight," Colton admitted.
When asked to reveal the moment in which he finally found the courage to speak his truth and come out, he recalled, "I got into a place for me in my personal life that was dark and bad," seemingly referring to the months after he split from Cassie Randolph in May 2020.
Colton confessed he had "suicidal thoughts" and there was a point when he'd "rather die than say I'm gay," which served as a wake-up call for the former football player to take back control of his life.
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Colton also apologized to Cassie and The Bachelor bachelorettes whom he had dated and admittedly misled on his path to accepting his sexuality.
"I just wish I didn't drag people into my own mess of figuring out who I was," Colton admitted, adding that he had made "a lot of bad choices."
"I genuinely mean that. But at the same time, I can say 'sorry' to all of those women and also say 'thank you.' Because without them and without The Bachelor franchise, I don't know if I ever would have come out."
Colton, however, insisted he was truly in love with Cassie, which made coming out even "harder and more confusing" for him.
"If I'm being very honest, I loved everything about her and it's hard for me to articulate what my emotions were in going through that relationship with her because I obviously had an internal fight going on," Colton shared on GMA.
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"I would just say that I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart. I'm sorry for the pain and emotional stress I caused. I wish it wouldn't have happened the way it did."
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He added, "I wish I would have been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else."
Colton gushed that he is now "proud to be gay" and proud of how far he's come in his personal journey.
"I'm still the same Colton everybody met on TV. I'm still the same Colton to my friends and my family, I just happen to be able to share with people now all of me," Colton explained.
After having a public relationship with Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, Colton found fame when he initially competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season in 2018.
Colton finished Becca's season in fourth place and then went on to appear on Bachelor in Paradise's fifth edition and had a fling with The Bachelor alum Tia Booth.
Colton later selected Cassie from California as his winner on The Bachelor over Tayshia Adams and Hannah Godwin, and the pair dated after the show until they announced their breakup in last year.
Prior to their surprising decision to part ways, Colton had publicly discussed wanting to propose marriage to Cassie in the near future although Cassie had expressed on more than one occasion she wasn't ready to get married or settle down.
Colton and Cassie's split got ugly and resulted in an online feud as well as Cassie filing a restraining order against Colton in September 2020 because she was "fearful for her safety," according to Us Weekly.
Cassie had accused Colton of putting a tracking device on her car post-breakup and stalking and harassing her. She also filed a police report the following month.
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Colton later told multiple press outlets Cassie had dropped the restraining order after they were able to reach an agreement in private that addressed Cassie's concerns.
The former The Bachelor star released a book in 2020 titled The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV, which mentioned how Colton had struggled with his sexuality for years.
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