Cassie Randolph speaks after Bachelor ex Colton Underwood came out and apologized for 'bad choices'

Former Bachelor winner Cassie Randolph has broken her silence on her ex Colton Underwood, a week after he came out as gay on Good Morning America and publicly apologized to her for his behavior after they broke up.

The former couple met on the reality show in 2018 and continued dating until April of 2020, but things took a tumultuous turn when Colton, 29, allegedly began ‘stalking and harassing’ Cassie, 25, sending unrelenting messages to both Cassie and her friends and family, and even placing a GPS tracker on her car — all of which led her to request a restraining order against him in September.

Then, on April 14, Colton revealed that he is gay on GMA and spoke candidly about his struggles to come to terms with it, saying that he is ‘sorry for how things ended’ with Cassie’ and that he ‘made a lot of bad choices.’

Now Cassie has briefly addressed Colton’s interview in a new video on her YouTube channel, thanking her fans for being supportive but admitting she is now focusing on moving forward.

Cassie shared the message with her fans at the beginning of a vlog about her new home on April 22. 

‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the kind comments and messages from you guys. I really appreciate it,’ she said. 

‘Regarding the topic in the media that brought my name up this week, I just wanted to let you know that I’m not gonna be further discussing it or commenting on it for now. 

‘There’s a lot of layers to it, and I just feel like the best thing for me at this time is to move forward and just focus on going forward. So, if I do decide in the future to say anything or make a comment at all, you guys will be the first to know,’ she concluded. ‘I feel very loved and supported.’

On the day of Colton’s interview, Cassie — who was vacationing in Mexico — thanks ‘everyone for all the kind comments and messages’ on Instagram, but otherwise kept mum on the subject.

Still, her name along with Colton’s dominated headlines after he dropped the bombshell that he spent years hating himself as he struggled with his sexuality and even attempted suicide. 

Speaking to Robin Roberts, the ex-NFL player addressed his breakup with Cassie, saying: ‘I got into a place with my personal life that was dark, and bad, and I can list a bunch of different things, but they’d all be excuses. I’d like to say sorry for how things ended. I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices.’

Cassie and Colton met during the 23rd season of The Bachelor in 2018, but their relationship was tumultuous from the start. After reaching the final three, Cassie broke things off with Colton and left the show, a decision that devastated Colton so much that he jumped over a fence to run after her. 

Colton ultimately picked Cassie as the winner, and though he didn’t propose, the two continued to date, with Colton moving to Los Angeles to be near her.

‘I found somebody I wanted to be with,’ he told People. ‘And I wasn’t willing to give up.’

But even as Cassie helped nurse Colton back to health when he contracted COVID-19 in March of 2020, their relationship wasn’t long for this world.  

In mid-April of 2020, the pair broke up, announcing their split the next month on Instagram.  

‘Its [sic] been a crazy few months to say the least, Cass and I have been doing a lot of self-reflecting,’ Colton wrote. ‘Sometimes people are just meant to be friends — and that’s okay. We both have grown immensely and been through so much together — so this isn’t the end of our story, it’s the start of a whole new chapter for us.’

Meanwhile, Cassie also wrote that they were staying friends.  

‘Colton and I have broken up, but have decided to remain a part of each others lives,’ she wrote. 

‘With all that we have gone through, we have a special bond that will always be there. I love Colton very much and have an enormous amount of respect for him. We have both learned and grown so much these past couple years, and will always have each others back. Always.’

A source told People it was a ‘mutual’ and ‘amicable’ breakup, and they were ‘still good friends,’ while another source later added that in the months following their breakup, they saw each other several times.  

But things weren’t to remain friendly for much longer.  

First, in July of 2020, Cassie briefly discussed the breakup on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!

‘I think going through any breakup is really hard but going through one in public comes with a whole new set of challenges,’ she said. ‘I mean, I’ve never gone through any of this before so we’re both kind of learning to navigate it. We’re on good terms and hanging in there.’

After it aired, Colton took to social media to chide Cassie for speaking about their breakup at all. 

‘When our relationship ended we agreed to handle things as privately as possible as we attempted to navigate our new relationship as friends. I chose to do that since we were living in this interim period, but obviously a lot changed this week,’ he wrote. 

Cassie then fired back on Instagram, writing: ‘I would like to state that I do not wish to create an online petty war. Colton, as you know we made an agreement to not publicly discuss our break up. I have honored this, as have you thus far.

‘I didn’t see any harm in doing the interview, as I wasn’t going to dish out details about our relationship to them,’ she went on, saying Colton’s post ‘saddened’ and ‘frustrated’ her.

She accused her ex of ‘subtly engaging in a tactic that peppers in aggressive comments’ to make her look like ‘the bad one.’

‘I would like to place on public record & ask you politely to refrain from discussing our relationship, as we agreed. I would also like to ask that you don’t cloud our great, 1 1/2 year relationship with a messy breakup.

‘On Monday evening [July 6], you informed me you intend to monetize our breakup by writing a new chapter to discuss your experience with COVID (where you stayed in my family’s house during your recovery) & about our breakup,’ she went on.

‘This seems a bit unfair to me. Colton, you can do what you want, but please do not have a double standard,’ she wrote, asking that they just ‘move on peacefully and successfully.’ 

Then, on September 11, 2020, the split took a dramatic turn when Cassie filed a request for a restraining order with the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. In the request, Cassie asked that Colton be legally barred from approaching her, her home, her workplace, her school, her car, or even her parents.

In documents filed with the request to the court and obtained by DailyMail.com, Cassie cited abuse that allegedly occurred in ‘various incidents since June 2020.’

The documents allege that Colton was ‘stalking and harassing’ her, sending her ‘unsettling text messages,’ repeatedly calling her, and placing ‘a tracking device on her vehicle to track her whereabouts’.

The restraining order request also said that Colton had been seen outside her parents’ home in Huntington Beach, California, on several occasions, including one time he was outside Cassie’s bedroom window at two in the morning. 

‘Mr. Underwood also watches Ms. Randolph’s apartment in Los Angeles. Mr. Underwood admitted to his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriend (who is also Ms. Randolph’s friend) that he goes on multiple walks a day to Ms. Randolph’s apartment building,’ the document continued. 

Colton ‘obsessively called and sent text messages’ when Cassie had a male visitor, leaving Cassie ‘startled that he knew who was coming in and out of her apartment, and felt like she was being watched.’ 

He sent similar messages when she visited her family and friends, indicating that he knew where she was, the documents read. 

In addition to sending her frequent text messages from his own number — and also texting members of her family — Colton also allegedly ‘used alias phone numbers to anonymously send harassing text messages at all hours of the day to Ms. Randolph and to her friends.’ 

What’s more, he allegedly used those same fake numbers to send harassing messages to his own phone number.

Suspicious that Colton might be tracking her car, Cassie and her family investigated on August 19 and found a ’tile tracking device taped to the bottom of the back bumper of her car.’  

Two days later, Cassie confronted Colton and told him she called the police and hired a private investigator over the car tracking, according to the documents.

‘Mr. Underwood admitted that he was the one who put the tracker on her car and had been the one sending text messages to her, her friends and himself, under the alias phone numbers described above,’ the restraining order request reads.

He also reportedly admitted as much to mutual friends.

Cassie filed for the restraining order due to ‘fears for her safety and the safety of her family and friends and wants to ensure that the harassment and stalking behavior cease when he returns to Los Angeles [from a trip to Denver].’

Several screenshots of text messages, as well as photos of the car tracker, were included in the report.   

Cassie was ultimately granted a temporary restraining order that forced Underwood to stay at least 100 yards away from her, in addition to her car, home, workplace, and school. 

Later, however, Cassie dismissed the restraining order against Colton, and requested to drop the police investigation.

‘Today Cassie asked the court to dismiss the temporary restraining order against me, Colton reportedly told TMZ on November 3. 

‘The two of us were able to reach a private agreement to address any of Cassie’s concerns. I do not believe Cassie did anything wrong in filing for the restraining orders and also believe she acted in good faith. I appreciate everyone’s respect for privacy regarding this matter.’ 

Now, Colton has finally copped to bad behavior in his new GMA interview. 

In addition to saying he ‘messed up’ and ‘made a lot of bad choices’ while apologizing ‘for how things ended,’ he also said he was sorry for continuing a relationship with her even though he is gay, admitting he was still struggling with how to come to terms with his sexuality. 

‘Yes [I was in love with her],’ he insisted. ‘It… made it harder and more confusing for me, if I’m being honest. I loved everything about her and it’s hard for me to articulate exactly what my emotions were in going through that relationship with her was, because I obviously had an internal fight going on.

‘I would just say that I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I’m sorry for any pain and emotional stress I caused. I wish it wouldn’t have happened the way it did. I wish that I would have been courageous enough to fix myself before I broke anybody else.’ 

Colton’s emotional interview also revealed details of his ongoing struggles.

‘Obviously this year’s been a lot for a lot of people and it’s probably made a lot of people look themselves in the mirror and figure out who they are and what they’ve been running from or putting off in their lives, and for me, I’ve ran from myself for a long time,’ he explained. ‘I’ve hated myself for a long time.’

When asked whether he ever attempted to harm himself, Colton admitted that there was a ‘moment in LA’ when he tried to take his own life.

‘There was a moment in LA [when] I woke up and I didn’t think I was going to wake up,’ he revealed. ‘I didn’t have the intentions of waking up and I did.’

Colton said he had thought that being chosen for The Bachelor was a sign that God was ‘making him straight’.

‘I literally remember praying to God the morning I found out that I was a Bachelor and thanking him for making me straight,’ he recalled.

‘I remember that vividly, saying, like, “Finally you’re letting me be straight. Finally you’re giving me a wife, a fiancee and then I’m going to have the kids then I’m going to have the house and have all this.”‘ 

Since the interview, Netflix is rumored to be working on a reality show with Colton — though a Change.org petition has amassed over 33,000 signatures from people demanding that the streaming service abandon it, pointing to Colton’s ‘abusive behavior’ toward Cassie.