The Bachelor couple Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph's split after about 18 months together has had fans wondering what went wrong, and now sources are explaining the reasons behind the couple's breakup.

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The Bachelor Season 23 couple -- who never got engaged and only continued dating after Colton's The Bachelor season wrapped filming in November 2018 -- announced their breakup in a pair of Friday evening Instagram posts following weeks of speculation about the status of their relationship.

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Colton and Cassie wrote on their respective Instagram accounts late last week they had grown very close and "will remain friends," and that's apparently because an insider told People the pair's split was "mutual" and "definitely amicable."

"Colton and Cassie are still good friends, and they want to stay friends," the insider said.

"It's definitely a priority for them. Colton is sad, but he's looking forward to what the future may bring."

Another insider explained to the magazine, "The breakup happened recently and they put a lot of thought into it. Ultimately, Colton and Cassie just weren't on the same page."

After falling in love with Cassie, Colton told the press on numerous occasions he planned to propose marriage to his girlfriend, and Colton was reportedly ready to get engaged before the end of 2019.

Considering an engagement never happened, fans speculated Cassie wasn't ready and kept pushing back their timeline.

"Colton really wanted to settle down and get married -- he's been ready for a long time," said the second People insider. "And Cassie just wasn't ready. They both knew it wasn't going to work."

According to Us Weekly, Colton and Cassie's breakup was a long time coming.

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"Cassie and Colton have a great friendship, but that's what it was for most of their relationship," a source told Us, adding, "They just made good partners and really great friends."
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"Friends around Colton and Cassie knew this was coming for a while, they were pretty much just roommates toward the end," the source noted.

Another source revealed the couple had carefully arrived at the conclusion they should part ways and it was not a sudden or spontaneous decision.

"Breaking up was not an easy decision for Colton and Cassie, but they believe it was the right decision at the end of the day," the second source explained.

"It was not something they did lightly. They had a number of conversations about their future beforehand. Now that all is said and done, they are starting a new chapter as friends."

Rumors and speculation about the couple's relationship had swirled for weeks as they had been spending time apart in different states. Colton chose to visit his family in Colorado alone, and neither he or Cassie had posted about the other on Instagram since April.

However, earlier this month a source told Us that "everything is fine" between the pair.

Prior to reuniting with his family, Colton had been recovering from coronavirus in Cassie's family's home in Huntington Beach, CA.

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Colton announced on March 20 that he had tested positive for the virus, but eventually made "a full recovery" thanks to Cassie taking care of him.

Around that same time, Colton spoke to Us about his supposedly strong relationship with Cassie and where he thought they were headed in the near future.

"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 the magazine'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."

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.

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"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.

"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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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.