The Bachelor alum Nick Viall has joined Ben Higgins in claiming Colton Underwood lied about Bachelor Nation supposedly not showing any support for his public coming out.
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The Season 23 The Bachelor star, who publicly announced he's gay on Good Morning America in April, also noted of his coming-out journey, "I will say this: Chris was about the only one from the franchise who really reached out and sort of let me know that he was there for me and [asked] if there's anything he can do... Unfortunately, I don't have really any relationships in the franchise anymore."
But according to Nick, who starred on Season 21 of The Bachelor, that's just not true!
"That's a lie," Nick, 41, said during the Tuesday episode of his "The Viall Files" podcast.
Nick went as far as to read the actual message he had allegedly sent Colton at the time of the former pro football player's announcement he's gay.
"April 14th, 7:30AM -- I don't know if that's the day of his Good Morning America appearance, but I believe it was," Nick began, before reading: 'Congrats, bud. Hope you're in a happier place,' [along] with a heart."
Nick claimed of Colton, "He hearted it immediately, and so he saw it and said, 'Thank you, man. I'm doing so good and happy.' I said, 'Great to hear. Rooting for your happiness.'"
Nick, who also previously competed on two The Bachelorette seasons and once looked for love on Bachelor in Paradise, therefore noted, "He's just a liar."
"It was a DM. It was on Instagram," Nick elaborated of his message to Colton. "I don't know, it's weird when people lie about little things they don't need to lie [about] for attention."
Just days earlier, Ben -- who starred on The Bachelor's 20th season, one year before Nick -- called Colton out for not being truthful about his coming-out journey and Bachelor Nation's involvement in that.
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On Colton's claim Chris was the only person to reach out after his GMA interview in April, Ben said during the December 8 episode of "The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast," that was "just a lie."
Ben confirmed he had yet to watch Coming Out Colton, which premiered December 3 on Netflix.
"It is [a lie]. Colton came out this week and said that nobody from Bachelor Nation reached out to him, kind of after coming out, and that's just not true," Ben told his co-host Ashley Iaconetti.
"So it kind of erupted my gut a little bit."
Ben acknowledged it "kind of" makes him uninterested in ever watching Colton's docu-reality series now.
"Maybe that's pride and maybe I need to get over that, and maybe I will. But you know, I know of multiple people that did, including myself, including friends of mine -- that reached out to him," Ben insisted.
"So I don't know why he's saying that. Like, I just don't get it. I don't know if that's a good headline, I don't know if it makes the rest of us look unsupportive, or what."
Ashley said she was well aware Ben had touched base with Colton after learning the former pro football player is gay along with "a couple other" people who probably showed their support for Colton.
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"Really?!" Ashley asked with surprise in her voice.
"So I really don't understand some of this stuff sometimes," Ben vented. "It's like, 'Are you just trying to make everybody else look bad and for people to feel bad?' Because like, Colton, I know people who did, including myself!"
"And so, that's just a lie," Ben reiterated. "So, I don't understand that."
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Colton actually contradicts his claim to Us Weekly right within his Netflix show.
During Episode 6 of Coming Out Colton, Colton is shown meeting up with one of his Season 23 The Bachelor bachelorettes, Onyeka Ehie, at a pool.
"Onyeka was one of the 30 girls that was on my season of The Bachelor," Colton says in a confessional. "After my [GMA] interview, I remember seeing her tweet."
Onyeka had tweeted at the time, "Happy for @colton for speaking his truth. We support you."
Colton went on to say, "She was one of the first women to reach out, and it meant a lot to me."
Not only is Onyeka someone other than Chris Harrison, but in saying Onyeka was "one of the first women to reach out," Colton is also clearly suggesting multiple bachelorettes from his season contacted him to show support following the announcement he's gay.
"I was nervous to talk to you or other women who were on my season because I don't want you guys to feel duped or betrayed or like I wasted your time. I guess in reality, I had no business being the Bachelor," Colton told Onyeka on his Netflix series.
"I just mentally was not in a good place. I remember saying, 'Thank you, God, for making me the Bachelor. You're going to finally answer my prayers by making me straight. This is my chance to find a wife and now I have nowhere to run.'"
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"I see the criticism. I know that people are upset that I have white privilege and I got a series after coming out," Colton said, according to Us.
"And since coming out, I in no way, shape or form am trying to make people look the other way or forget about anything. I will own my mistakes and I will own who I was at that time in my life... Me doing this show was never to flip the page or start a new chapter. It was for me to say and to show, like, 'I f-cked up, I made mistakes.'"
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Colton selected Cassie Randolph as the winner of his The Bachelor season, which filmed in late 2018 and aired in early 2019, but Cassie did not want to get engaged and took her time falling in love with the former athlete in the real world.
Colton and Cassie dated for about 18 months and discussed getting engaged before announcing their breakup in May 2020.
What started out as an amicable split last year turned nasty when Cassie accused Colton of trying to "monetize" their breakup by writing about it in his The First Time memoir as well as stalking and harassing her, which resulted in Cassie filing a restraining order against the former NFL player in September 2020 followed by a police report several weeks later.
Colton allegedly put a tracking device on Cassie's car, sent her "unsettling" text messages, and would stand outside her apartment or her parents' house very late at night.
Colton later told multiple press outlets Cassie ultimately dropped the restraining order after they were able to reach an agreement in private that addressed Cassie's concerns.
Cassie was asked to appear on Coming Out Colton but declined, according to Variety.
On Ben and Ashley's December 8 podcast, Ashley expressed surprise Colton had never warned Cassie or given her a heads-up that he'd be coming out gay on national television before his headline-making GMA interview this past spring.
"That's crazy," Ashley noted. "He does allude to him not being able to speak about certain things publicly, and maybe because of legal issues he can't even reach out to Cassie himself. But I don't know."
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Ben said Cassie is "obviously affected by all of this" and is "definitely entitled" to her opinion of allegedly wanting to separate herself from Colton's storyline.
Colton told Variety in May that he and Cassie had agreed not to discuss the details of their relationship in the press, but he insisted, he "did not physically touch or physically abuse Cassie in any way, shape or form."
Colton is now dating and in love with political strategist Jordan C. Brown, and Cassie moved on with musician Brighton Reinhardt, with whom she reportedly couldn't be happier.
Colton told GMA earlier this year that he realized he was different at the age of six and came to the conclusion he's gay when he was a freshman in high school.
Colton said he hated himself "for a long time" and was "a miserable person living as a shell of a human being" while pretending to be straight for well over a decade.
Colton disclosed how he had a few sexual encounters with men when he was in his twenties -- without having sex -- before appearing on The Bachelor franchise three times.
Before starring as the Bachelor, Colton competed on The Bachelorette 14 starring Becca Kufrin and also looked for love on Bachelor in Paradise 5, when he dated Tia Booth.
In special GMA footage that aired April 15 on ABC's Nightline, Colton lamented about having misled his The Bachelor bachelorettes, especially Cassie.
"I wish I would have been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else... Do I regret handling [The Bachelor] the way that I did? I do. I do think I could've handled it better... I just wish I didn't drag people into my own mess of figuring out who I was," Colton admitted.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
