The former Bachelor tells PEOPLE he “needed that time” after his Netflix docuseries aired in December 2021 to “invest in myself” and “heal”
Phillip Faraone/Getty;Michael Becker/FOX
Colton Underwood as Lovebird in Season 11 of ‘The Masked Singer’
Colton Underwood brought love to The Masked Singer as a lovebird.
Although the former Bachelor, 32, was eliminated during the Wednesday, April 10, episode of Transformers Night, Underwood tells PEOPLE he’s considering The Masked Singer “one of the best experiences of my life.”
‘I have been offered [and] I wanted to do it for a few years, but timing-wise and other reasons, it never worked out until this year,” Underwood says.
The former NFL player appeared on Becca Kufrin’s season The bachelorette in 2018 before taking charge as Bachelor the following year. In 2021, Underwood publicly came out as gay and detailed his journey in Netflix’s Colton comes out docuseries.
Josh Vertucci via Getty
Hannah Brown and Colton Underwood on ‘The Bachelor’
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Underwood married Jordan C. Brown in May 2023, and now the couple has begun welcoming a child together via a surrogate. “The great thing about family building is that it is so intentional,” says the Dadhood says podcast host. “It’s a bond between Jordan and I like we never could have imagined.”
Below, the reality star tells PEOPLE whether that is the case The Masked Singer has fueled his competitive nature, as he plans to continue appearing on television and what he calls his caregiver’s “greatest honor” yet.
PEOPLE: Besides the timing, what kept you from saying yes The Masked Singer earlier?
COLTON UNDERWOOD: I don’t think I was in a good place when I came off my Netflix show. I was still in the middle of my coming out process. I’m so glad I waited because I felt like this was the best time for me to do something like this. It was so much fun.
Why did you choose the Lovebird costume?
The Lovebird and everything it represents is symbolic in many obvious ways, but I think this is more so, just out of the love of finding self-acceptance within myself. The symbolism of that costume and what I’ve experienced from the age of 20 to now and the last eight years of my life in front of the camera. It was nice to let loose on that stage, let people in a little more and get back to television.
Michael Becker/FOX
Colton Underwood Performs as Lovebird in Season 11 of ‘The Masked Singer’
How did it feel to perform under the mask?
It was hot, but I have to say at least I had some movement with mine and some breathing compared to some of the others. I was lucky that I had a kind of large shield in my bird’s body, where I could move around a bit and not get too hot.
Has doing the show brought out your competitive side from your football days?
I actually thought I would be more competitive. It was interesting because normally, if someone told me I was going on some kind of competition show, I would say, “I’m in it to win it.” With something like this I understood very well what my limits were, what I was good at. I just wanted to have fun. I was like, ‘I’m not here to win this. I want to prove to myself that I can do something outside my comfort zone.” And I feel like I didn’t do a half bad job. It was a good time for me.
Charles Sykes/Bravo
Colton Underwood (right) and husband Jordan C. Brown
In your last clue package, you talked about the world coming to know you as someone you weren’t initially. Do you feel like they have a better idea now?
I hope so. I think going through and navigating a coming out experience and self-love is difficult in front of the public. I really needed the year I took for myself to invest in myself privately, in my relationship, to heal. I just needed that time. That’s pretty much my goal Dadhood and my return here is to reintroduce myself and just say, ‘Hey, I’m still kinda the same guy you met on Bachelor education, but there are different parts of me. That’s the beauty of the coming out process: discovering what parts of my life and what parts of me I’m holding onto and staying true to, and how else can I grow, expand, and change.
On The Masked Singer, you encouraged people not to hide who they are and to share themselves. Do you wish you started your coming out journey sooner?
Of course I wish I had had it at a younger age and not felt trapped by sports, religion and my desire to be a father. But I truly believe that I was on the path that I was on because I had to go through that to get out. Now there’s a chance for people to have a bit of a blueprint of what I went through and possibly avoid some of the mistakes I made while in the closet. I can always admit that I handled things a lot better, but I had to go through what I went through. I try not to have so many regrets.
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What does it mean to you that children who feel the same way as you do will see you? The Masked Singer talk about your trip?
That’s the greatest honor of any project I’ve ever done. With the Netflix show, I wake up every day and get a new message from somewhere around the world saying that they just watched the documentary and it helped them or saved their life. And knowing that something like this exists to help was clearly the reason I said yes at the end of the day to filming my coming out. And no matter how invasive and vulnerable I had to be to do that, I would do it again and again because I see the messages and I see the struggle that many men and women who have been in similar positions to me find themselves in and how they get there. That is something I will always be proud of.
Can we expect you to do more reality TV in the future?
We will see. I absolutely don’t like speaking in definitive matters in my life anymore, but I like competition. I obviously love the entertainment landscape and the world I’ve been in. I’m currently working on a lot of development and behind these camera operations, but I’m up for anything and I’m excited to get back in front of the camera again.
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The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET on Fox.
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