'Bachelor' star Madison Prewett says ‘secret sexual sin’ battle led to shame: 'I was living this double life'
"The Bachelor" star Madison Prewett is finally coming clean after years of living in "secret sexual sin."
On Tuesday’s episode of "The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast," Prewett spoke candidly about the internal struggles she began facing in middle school after publicly presenting herself as someone waiting until marriage, while privately grappling with pornography use and masturbation.
"Around 13, 14, I got introduced to pornography at a young age by a friend. That started a long journey and battle for me with porn and masturbation. That created a lot of shame and secrecy in my life. I lived my life very much in this: ‘I’m saving myself for marriage, I have my virgin card, I’m following God,’" Prewett began.
"And on the outside it looked like everything was fine, but behind closed doors I was living this double life of living in constant secret sin, secret sexual sin, and not confessing it to anybody, which only led to more sin and more shame, and it felt like this never-ending cycle that I didn’t know how to get out of," she continued.
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Prewett told Candice Cameron Bure that she lived in secret sin her entire middle and high school years, but was able to open up about her struggles once she went to college.
"I finally was able to break free from that addiction and that cycle. I think a lot of times we think with our sin, that if we confess it or if we finally tell someone about it, they will judge us, people will think we’re gross, they will think we are a bad Christian. If we say that, maybe they won’t want to be my friend anymore," the 29-year-old admitted.
Prewett shared that for her, confessing her sin allowed herself to feel "lighter" and immediate relief. To this day, the reality TV alum doesn't allow herself to keep her sin bottled up and encourages others to "just confess" what they've been struggling with.
"What you’ll notice is that most of the time when you share that secret sin or that shameful thing — that maybe you didn’t even do, maybe it was done to you, and it’s been holding you back for so long — and you finally confess that to somebody, you know whether it’s a porn addiction or an abortion or something that someone took advantage of you," she began.
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Prewett continued, "I think a lot of times it’s equated to sexuality — not always but a lot of times — and confessing that thing immediately, you feel this relief and you feel this freedom. That was really what that journey was like for me. Even to this day, having moments of shame popping back up, immediately just confess it and get it into the light and share it with a friend."
In June, Prewett first revealed her previous masturbation and porn addiction on the "Stay True" podcast.
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"Thankfully, by the grace of God and by the power of godly community and people around me, I have been free from porn and masturbation for — I don’t even know — 10 years," Prewett said at the time.
"But that was something that enslaved me and marked me for so long. … No matter how much I loved Jesus, I could not shake that sin. I could not break free from porn and masturbation."
Prewett rose to fame as runner-up on Peter Weber's season of "The Bachelor" in 2020. In July 2022, Prewett married pastor Grant Troutt. The couple welcomed their daughter Hosanna in Jan. 2025.