Colton Underwood is responding to his former The Traitors costar Michael Rapaport’s apparent dig about his sexuality.
“I think any closeted or queer person who has to hide a part of themselves is always going to be a little sensitive to comments and digs,” Underwood, 33, told Bustle in an interview published on Friday, January 16. “I don’t know if [it’s shown], but Yam Yam [Arocho] got really emotional when that happened. He said, ‘Michael, I never had to live in the closet because I could be out at any age, but I have friends who have, and I would never wish that upon people.’”
He added, “It rattled me. It got to me. And it was really emotional.”
Underwood, who previously starred and dated women while appearing on both The Bachelorette and The Bachelor, came out as gay in 2021. At the time, the reality star claimed he was being blackmailed and, as a result, decided to publicly announce his sexuality.
On this week’s episode 5 of the hit reality series, Rapaport, 55, insinuated that Underwood was a good liar because he hid his sexuality.
“Nobody in this room would be better at holding a secret than you,” the actor said while pointing across the table at Underwood.
“There it is,” Colton responded during the episode. “You think it was fun for 29 years of my life?”
The comedian then seemingly attempted to walk back his comments, clarifying that he wasn’t referring to Underwood’s sexuality.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no — that has nothing to do with it,” Rapaport claimed. “I think you came into this game loving the idea of being a Traitor.”
Despite his claims, Rapaport’s fellow contestants immediately responded in support of Underwood, condemning Rapaport’s apparent slight.
“You can’t blame somebody being forced into a closet for the majority of their life,” Johnny Weir said, while Arocho called Rapaport’s comments “a very low blow.”
“It wasn’t intended to be,” Rapaport insisted, to no avail.
“Today, the way you spoke to Colton, for me, it’s enough to write your name down,” Natalie Anderson said. “So I think we should just get together and vote him out of here.”
Rapaport was ultimately eliminated from the competition with 11 out of 16 votes. (Ron Funches received the other five votes.)
“You don’t make me feel good,” Underwood told Rapaport while casting his vote. “I don’t want you in the castle.”
While speaking to Bustle, Underwood explained why voting Rapaport off the show “had to be done.”
“I’ve been doing television long enough to understand that, ideally, [the show] probably didn’t want Michael on for as long as he was on,” Underwood told the outlet. “I think they thought he would piss people off in episode 1, which he did, but he was just so bold that the Faithfuls were like, ‘This can’t be a Traitor. He would never play like this.’”
He continued, “We don’t want to waste a vote, but we are also getting really annoyed and distracted by this dude. It finally got to a point where I’m like, ‘Screw it. I don’t care who you like [or] what you are, you got to get out of here.’”
