Colton Underwood has returned to Instagram with a fresh start after announcing he's gay.

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After previously deleting all of the content from his Instagram account, Colton posted a slideshow of Polaroids on Thursday featuring his friends and family.

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Colton's return to social media came just one day after he came out as gay on Good Morning America.

"I have a lot to learn, but I have come a long way. To the people in my corner, I love you. Without you I wouldn't be here," Colton, 29, captioned the post.

Colton is clearly thanking those who have shown support and love during his journey to expressing his sexuality and being his authentic self.

One of the photos showed Olympian Gus Kenworthy, with whom Colton is currently filming a Netflix documentary about his new life as an openly-gay man, Us Weekly reported.

Colton, who recently bought a home in Denver, CO, close to his family, said during his Wednesday GMA interview with Robin Roberts that he wishes he had trusted his loved ones, including his father, with this information sooner.

"The only reason I'm sitting down with you today is because I have the support and the love of my family," Colton acknowledged.

Colton revealed he had finally come "to terms" with being gay earlier this year after running from and hating himself "for a long time."

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"I'm emotional, but I'm emotional in, like, such a good, happy, and positive way," Colton shared with Robin, who is also openly gay.

"I'm the happiest and healthiest I've ever been in my life. And that means the world to me."

Colton said he knew he was "different" at age six and realized for certain that he liked men in high school.

"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.

Colton decided to be honest with himself and others after being in "a dark place" and experiencing suicidal thoughts.

While Colton clearly felt relief upon making his life-changing announcement, his ex-girlfriend of 18 months, The Bachelor Season 23 alum Cassie Randolph, was reportedly "not made aware" Colton was going to come out as gay on GMA and is "still processing" the news, according to a source.

"To be honest, she hasn't really had time to navigate how she feels about it yet," the source told Us earlier this week.

Colton gave Cassie his final rose on The Bachelor and hoped to marry her, but the pair announced their decision to split on May 2020. What started off as an amicable split spiraled into a nasty and messy social-media feud.

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Cassie went on to file a restraining order against Colton in September 2020 because she was reportedly "fearful for her safety."

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 in October of last year.

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.

Colton also confirmed during his GMA interview with Robin that he hasn't spoken "at all" to Cassie.

In new footage of the interview that aired during the Thursday episode of ABC's Nightline, Colton revealed of Cassie, "I don't know if I ever will get the chance to sit down and talk with her. I would like to."

"As far as what he would tell Cassie if given the opportunity, Colton explained, "I would like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices."

"I made mistakes at the end of that relationship and I ruined the good memories we had by my actions and what I did to hold on to being straight because I didn't want to look myself in the mirror," Colton continued. "So for that, I'm extremely, extremely sorry."

Prior to starring on The Bachelor, Colton found fame when he competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season in 2018.

After making it to Becca's Final 4 bachelors and failing to win her heart, The First Time author went on to appear on Bachelor in Paradise's fourth edition and had a fling with The Bachelor alum Tia Booth.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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