Bachelor Nation may have been surprised to see Cassie Randolph in the audience during part one of Clayton Echard’s Monday, March 14, finale, but the season 23 Bachelor wasn’t.
“I did know that she was going on. One of the producers texted me just to give me a heads-up, which, I mean, obviously, they don’t even owe me that at this point. But I did appreciate that,” the 30-year-old Coming Out Colton star said on Monday’s episode of iHeartRadio’s “Almost Famous” podcast, which taped before the live finale aired. “Whatever she needs to say, like, I’ve always from the very beginning [said] whatever she has to say or vent or do, I obviously have no control over that. It’s whatever she feels like she needs to do.”
Cassie, 26, made her first public appearance related to the ABC series on Monday since she filed a temporary restraining order against Colton during fall 2020. Several months after the legal filing, which alleged he stalked and harassed her, was dropped, Colton came out as gay.
“There’s no way to, like, sugarcoat it. I mean, it hasn’t been the easiest process. And I’m really happy, really good now, but it took a lot of work to get there,” Colton told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on Monday. “It was covered pretty much in [Coming Out Colton] as far as how things went right after the breakup, and COVID and all of that. But at the end of it, I mean, look, I could have handled a lot of things better and … saved a lot of people a lot of time, but at the end of the day, like, my path to coming out, my path to finding happiness was definitely one that was pretty rocky.”
During the podcast, Ben sounded surprised that Colton was informed about Cassie’s appearance.
“They don’t give me any heads-up anymore. And then I just saw a preview of my proposal during The Bachelor [finale teaser], like, ‘Come on, guys. I’m married, like, can we stop ABC?’” the season 20 lead replied.
“How does that make you feel, though?” Colton asked. “I think The Bachelor franchise, for me, became just so toxic and such a business that I didn’t want to be involved in how they handle things like that. So I stepped away. How do you reconcile that with yourself, internally, when they continue to do things that don’t sit well with you or don’t give you a heads-up?”
Ben noted that he “fully understands” that the network owns “the rights to everything that happened on [my] season for perpetuity” and whatever way it is used he “cannot be upset because I agreed to that.” However, he added, “I don’t have to like it. I don’t have to enjoy it. … And I hope they care about me enough at this point where they’re like, ‘I don’t want to show something that, like, ruins his marriage.’ Or like, you know, I don’t know if they have that power, but they don’t show something that causes, you know, drama within my marriage.”
The Alone In Plain Sight author married Jessica Clarke in November 2021. Before the end of the podcast, he clarified that he is still in touch with some show producers.
“I misspoke earlier. The producers have texted me [in the] last three years. In fact, a couple of them came to my wedding,” he noted. “Maybe not about the show and then I went onto Matt’s [James] season, which was probably two years ago. … I’m saying when my name gets brought up or when there’s, like, clips of stuff, I don’t get the heads-up. Granted, not too many people from my season are still coming on the show.”
Scroll through for more from Colton’s conversation with Ashley and Ben: