Fans have a LOT of feelings after Good Morning America decided to air a special sit-down interview with Colton Underwood Wednesday in which he proudly announced he is gay.
While most folks are joyous that the Bachelor lead is finally living his truth — it’s an incredible thing to come out, especially after being the face of such a heterosexual and conservative ABC hit — many have rightly called out the morning show for giving an alleged stalker a major platform to redeem himself!
As you no doubt remember, the season 23 Bachelor gave his final rose to contestant Cassie Randolph. Though they never got engaged, the couple grew quite close, especially during quarantine when the former athlete bunked with the Randolph fam while sick with COVID. But things grew ugly when they broke up in 2020 and Cassie quickly accused the “virgin Bachelor” of stalking and harassing her. Cassie even alleged he put a tracking device on her car! The celeb was given a restraining order, but it was later dismissed when they settled the matter privately.
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STILL, nothing about what happened seemed okay, even with the little information the public learned. And that’s why Twitter is up in arms over the fact that the reality star is breezing right past that wildly inappropriate way to handle a breakup. Here’s what some of the best tweeters had to say on the GMA segment:
“Giving a stalker a redemption arc on this large of a platform signals to all victims that their trauma is inconsequential. I hope Cassie is able to heal from the damage he inflicted on her, and isn’t further traumatized by the media pretending like it never happened.”
“Great for Colton to come out, but let’s not just forget and excuse his abusive behavior towards Cassie. Struggling with your sexuality does not excuse stalking and terrorizing your ex partner”
“Colton Underwood stalked Cassie Randolph for months, put a tracking device on her car, stood outside her apt at 2 am, and sent harassing text messages to her, her family, & her friends (according to her restraining order filing). That’s not being in love and making bad choices.”
“Colton’s gay! Cool! Now is he gonna explain the stalker stuff with Cassie bc that was super weird!”
“Big reminder that he stalked, harassed, and tormented Cassie who won his season, to the point she filed a restraining order. Good for him on living his truth, but it doesn’t erase the harm he caused.”
“Wishing Cassie peace away from this man. I can’t imagine waking up to see your stalker and abuser on a platform chalking it up to him being in a dark place and seeing the support he’s getting and minimizing the trauma she went through.”
“I dgaf that’s he’s gay. What’s damaging is ya’ll giving him a platform to ‘redeem’ himself. He’s an abuser. He stalked, gaslight Cassie and her family so much so that she feared for her life and had to formally file charges against him. Where is that conversation????”
There’s also this Oprah Winfrey gem. Lolz!
cassie watchin gma this mornin pic.twitter.com/ApR6t7mTcu
— mp (@mrpn1999) April 14, 2021
Jokes aside, they’re all totally right. It’s not like Colton didn’t talk about Cassie at all during Wednesday’s airing of his interview — he straight up said “sorry for how things ended.” He obviously knows the world was waiting for an actual acknowledgement of the police reports, but the 29-year-old blamed it all on his “internal fight.” Yeah… Not really an excuse for those alleged acts at all. Everyone’s got an inner battle of their own and not everybody resorts to stalking!
But there’s more!
We could still hear more about Colton’s infamous past with the speech pathologist (though we kinda doubt it…) because TMZ just revealed the Bachelor alum is trading in those thorny roses and appearing in a new Netflix reality series! The streamer’s show will focus on the star’s coming out journey, and it’s already been filming for weeks!
Related: Colton Underwood Details Entire Cassie Randolph Breakup In New Book
While focusing on Colton’s newfound life as a gay man, he’ll be joined by other guests in the LGBTQ+ community, such as Olympian Gus Kenworthy. Given that there aren’t very many public figures openly out in the sports industry, it’s actually pretty cool that this show will likely shine a light (especially since Underwood’s a former NFL star himself).
But still, this seems like a hard blow to survivors of any kind of harassment. Surely it’s not the best feeling for Cassie to see this man she once loved find new fame and happiness after causing such “pain and emotional stress.”
You can again catch up with Colton’s full interview (below), and hear his conversation about Cassie starting around 4:30.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers?? Will you be watching Netflix’s new show or were you kinda hoping for the franchise’s first gay Bachelor? And do you think Twitter is in the right for calling out GMA? Would it have been okay if the TV star addressed the controversy more in-depth? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
[Image via Judy Eddy/WENN]
The post Twitter Is Rallying Around Cassie Randolph After Colton Underwood's Coming Out — Here's Why appeared first on Perez Hilton.