Colton Underwood is speaking out after his exchange with actor Michael Rapaport on the latest of “Traitors.”
The fifth episode of this season was released on Thursday on Paramount. Underwood, who came out as gay years ago, is also on the show, and Rapaport is drawing heat for comments he made toward him.
“Traitors” is a game of deception, and Underwood accused Rapaport of being a traitor. The actor responded, “Nobody in this room would be better at holding a secret than you.”
“There it is,” Underwood replied. “You think it was fun for 29 years of my life?”
“Oh no, no, no, no, no — that has nothing to do with it,” Rapaport replied. “I think you came into this game loving the idea of being a traitor.”
Underwood opened up about the incident in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“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.”
The outlet asked Underwood if he believed Rapaport was really taking a swipe at his sexuality with the comment.
“In the short time that I got to know Michael, he was self-aware enough,” Underwood said. “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. 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 toward 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.
“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,” he added. “I would be the first person to say I’m definitely not perfect, and I definitely made a lot of mistakes. 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 the headspace of where I was at during my lowest.”
Underwood did say that Rapaport apologized and told him he “didn’t mean it.”
“I’m not holding a grudge against him, but I do think it’s important for me in my life at this point to start standing up for myself,” he said. “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.”
The Independent reported that other competitors on the show immediately took up for Underwood after Rapaport’s comment.
“You can’t blame somebody being forced into a closet for the majority of their life,” figure skater Johnny Weir, who is competing on the show, said.
Rapaport claimed that his comment had nothing to do with Underwood being in the closet at one point in his life.
“I’m not talking about closets!” Rapaport yelled at Weir.
“That’s what I took it as, or we took it as, anyway,” Weir responded.
“His behavior is of a traitor,” Rapaport said pointing at Underwood. “His behavior is secretive. It’s conniving. It’s chirping. It’s commiserating. It’s cowardly.”
Two other competitors, Yam Yam Arocho and Maura Higgins, agreed that the comment was a “very low blow.”
“I don’t think it was,” Rapaport replied. “It wasn’t intended to be.”
Unfortunately for the actor, folks on social media were not buying it.
“This moment with Michael Rapaport on the newest Traitors episode is vile,” Spencer Althouse wrote. “Love that Rob Rausch immediately clocked him for the incorrect.”
“Traitors used to be such a good fun show and leave it to Michael Rapaport to go on there and make it nasty,” Sarah Alaina wrote on X. “Ugh.”
There were others though who did believe that Rapaport was not trying to be homophobic with his comment.
Underwood, 33, and his husband, Jordan C. Brown, last made headlines back in 2024 when the welcomed a baby into the world. The couple first announced back in May of that year that they were expecting a child, and Underwood shared a photo of he and Brown posing with their new son. Underwood also shared a video of him feeding his son and wrote, “Our Sweet Bishop.”
Underwood was an undrafted rookie free agent out of Illinois State in 2014. The 6-foot-3, 254-pound defensive end first signed with the Chargers that year and also spent time on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad that season. He also spent time with the Raiders in 2015 and 2016.
Following his time in the NFL, Underwood appeared on “The Bachelorette” for that show’s 14th-season and then appeared on season 23 of “The Bachelor.”
Underwood came out as gay in a ‘Good Morning America” interview with Robin Roberts back in 2021. He told “Variety” that he never planned on telling the world he was gay, but did so because he was being “blackmailed,” by someone who claimed to have taken nude photos of him at a spa that was known for catering to gay clientele.
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