Colton Underwood Reacts to Michael Rapaport's 'The Traitors' Comments: 'I'm Not Holding a Grudge'
Colton Underwood is speaking out about latest episode of The Traitors.
During the fifth episode of season four, the 33-year-old reality star found himself at odds with co-star Michael Rapaport and there was a moment where it got a bit too personal for the former Bachelor star.
Prior to the roundtable, Colton expressed he thought Michael was a traitor and the actor went off, and it continued through to the roundtable discussion. At one point, Michael threw it back onto Colton saying he was a traitor because “nobody in this room would be better at holding a secret than you,” which did not sit well with many of the other contestants.
In a new interview, Colton opened up about what went down and how he feels watching it back.
Keep reading to find out more…
“The coming-out process takes a long time, and I’m still very much in my coming-out process, so there’s always little things here and there that sort of re-trigger old emotions. I’m still working on how to process it, and I think you definitely see that come up and hit me,” Colton told EW. “The reason I said yes to doing a show like The Traitors is it’s not personal. The drama and the intensity of the show is always so game-focused, so I think that’s what just threw me a little bit, is when it got personal and he was using me as a human being instead of my gameplay against me. That’s what caught me off guard, and I think you felt that and saw it in the episode.”
“In the short time that I got to know Michael, he was self-aware enough. He’s a fast talker, he’s a slick talker, and he said it in one of his interviews, his mouth gets him in trouble,” he added. “I grew up around those types of people. It’s very much like a locker-room-style environment, and I think phrases and little digs and things towards the gay community get thrown out a lot in those type of environments. I’m at a point in my life where I’m definitely not sitting in that emotion. I don’t feel like a victim at all. I know he’s probably watching it back just with a little bit of regret on how he delivered it.”
Colton was asked if he thought Michael was referring to his sexuality, though the actor said it was about game play.
“I could just tell you how I took it, and I did take it that it was not in a gaming way and it was more of a personal dig at my past and what I went through and how I handled myself. I would be the first person to say I’m definitely not perfect, and I definitely made a lot of mistakes,” he responded. “But at this point in my life, it was five or six years ago when I first started the coming-out process, and I’m in just such a different phase of life with my family and professionally. A lot of therapy. The harder part is just putting myself back into that headspace of where I was at during my lowest.”
“He apologized towards the end, like, ‘I didn’t mean it,’ so I have to take him for his word. I’m not holding a grudge against him, but I do think it is important for me in my life at this point to start standing up for myself,” Colton added. “I can only be a punching bag for so long. Even today, seeing some people’s [and] fans of the show’s comments towards me, I can only sit quiet for so long.”
If you missed it, here’s who went home on the latest episodes of The Traitors.