Colton Underwood opened up about the hate he received while starring on The Traitors season 4. He explained that he didn’t expect people to bring up his past, which includes the restraining order that his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Randolph, filed against him in 2020.Colton also defended his competitive nature during the show, and said the version of him seen on The Traitors is now who he is in real life.
Love him or hate him, Colton Underwood is getting candid on the backlash he received while starring on season 4 of The Traitors. While the former Bachelor star went into the show with a competitive spirit and intent to win, he really didn’t think that fans of the show would have so much hate for him, considering that the show’s entire premise is to scheme effectively.
“I don’t think I was expecting it to be as personal as what it’s been on social media. It’s literally called The Traitors. It is to lie, to deceive, to play the game and I was really looking forward to that. And I felt like I was really good at it. And I really enjoyed the show as a whole,” he said in a February 6 interview with USA Today. “But I also do understand it was a lot of people’s first time meeting me…or this was their first time seeing me since they met me on The Bachelor. And a lot of life has happened for me over those five or six years.”
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Colton continued, “I see some of the comments in the videos. I try to focus on the positive sides of social media. I have no interest in going tit for tat with people who are posting things that are simply just untrue and or lacking context of where it was and what happened in my life.”
As a refresher, some viewers of the show condemned Colton’s casting due to the temporary restraining order that his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Randolph—AKA who famously inspired him to jump over a fence after she denied his engagement in one of his final Bachelor episodes—filed after he allegedly stalked and harassed her, going as far as reportedly placing a tracking device on her car. The restraining order was dropped in November of 2020 after they reached a private agreement.
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“It was a private matter that was handled privately a while ago. So for it to come back up six years later was not something I expected,” Colton told the outlet.
Now, Colton is encouraging viewers of the show to separate fact from fiction, and to move on from his past mistakes.
“I am now a father. I am a husband. How I show up in my everyday life with my family is not how I show up on the television screen playing the game Traitors. I am a very intense competitor. I love competing. I love winning. That version of Colton that everybody saw is not really who I am, but I totally see why, for some people, it was a little jarring seeing me again.”
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