Colton Underwood Says Producers Used ‘Gross’ Tactics During His Season Of ‘The Bachelor’

Colton Underwood says producers came “annoyingly close to crossing the line” during his season of The Bachelor, and that some of their tactics when poking fun at his virginity were “gross.”

Colton, who recently published his memoir, The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love on Reality TV, told the Los Angeles Times that his billing as “The Virgin Bachelor” paved the way for jokes that would have sparked outrage had it been done on a season of The Bachelorette.

“If a guy would have gotten out of the limo and popped a cherry in Hannah Brown’s face, it would have been a much different reaction than when it happened to me,” Colton said. “If a guy got out and wet the driveway down and said ‘I hope I made you wet?’ That’s gross. That’s not something to applaud.”

Colton explained that he went along with everything he was told to do on the show, but took issue when the narrative became more about “Hey, let’s get this guy laid” instead of “Let’s find love for him.”

Colton also teased that “there were lines crossed” by producers in his relationship with his final Bachelor pick, Cassie Randolph, that he found out about after the show. The former NFL player said things were done behind the scenes that “compromised” his relationship with the speech therapist, and now it makes a lot more sense to him that she decided to leave the show.

Colton famously jumped a fence and threatened to quit the show after Cassie left. They reconciled on the season finale of The Bachelor and are still dating more than a year later.

ABC’s former leading man also blasted Bachelor producers for not giving him “a fair shot” to end up with the girl that he was falling in love with, and says he was forced to take matters into his own hands to win Cassie back. The Bachelor star previously slammed producers for flying Cassie’s father out to Portugal so he could tell her not to get engaged.

Colton previously admitted he felt “dirty” after spending the night in the fantasy suite with Tayshia Adams because he knew he was in love with Cassie at the time. The Bachelor star felt obligated to help create a TV show, even though some of the situations he found himself in conflicted with his morals.

While Colton accused Bachelor producers of valuing their TV show more than the love story that they promote, he added that he respects them for doing their job and admitted they are good at it.

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