Colton Underwood: Not like other Bachelors.
The new star of the Bachelor franchise begins his journey this Monday, and based on everything we’ve heard, it sounds like this is going to be a season like no other. First, we had Chris Harrison telling us he didn’t want to say it would be the “most dramatic season ever” because he didn’t want to cheapen Colton’s experience (honestly still shocked by this), and now we’ve got Colton himself telling us he did things a little differently.
“This whole entire thing wasn’t always pretty,” he told E! News’ Zuri Hall. “It wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t the perfect Bachelor. I made a lot of mistakes. It was hard, I knew it was going to be hard, I knew it was gonna push me and it was going to be emotionally draining at times, but it was going to be also rewarding at times. The ups and the downs are there, and that’s why I said—it’s real, raw, vulnerable. I did things much differently than any other Bachelor has ever done it.”
Colton did not elaborate on what exactly he means by that, but he did address a few other important aspects of his Bachelorhood, like his much discussed virginity.
“Is it overplayed? Absolutely,” he admits. “But it’s one of those things that, I think, looking back at my time on The Bachelorette and Paradise, that’s really all anybody knows about me.”
He explains that at almost all times on both of those shows, he was dealing with “a situation.” Whether it was his former relationship with Tia, which Becca took issue with on The Bachelorette, or his then-current relationship with Tia on Paradise, he never really got a chance to just be himself.
As for those promos, like the one comparing him to Steve Carell in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Colton says he’s been consulted on everything.
“It is something that I can definitely make light of, and I can have fun with,” he says. “And I enjoy having fun with it, but it does have a serious side to it, and they know that as well, and they respect it.”
Of course, Colton couldn’t tell Zuri if he’s still a virgin or not and also refused to say whether he’s in love, but he did say yes to the fact that he was sweating, and almost accidentally maybe said yes to being engaged, or maybe just to sweating again. Watch the interview and see for yourself!
The Bachelor premieres this Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC.