Colton Underwood reacts to Michael Rapaport's dig on “The Traitors”: 'I can only be a punching bag for so long'
- - Colton Underwood reacts to Michael Rapaport's dig on “The Traitors”: 'I can only be a punching bag for so long'
Sydney BucksbaumJanuary 17, 2026 at 8:07 AM
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Colton Underwood on 'The Traitors'
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Traitors season 4, episode 5.
Colton Underwood is breaking his silence about Michael Rapaport's controversial dig that was seemingly about his sexuality during the most recent roundtable on The Traitors.
The extremely polarizing Michael had already made plenty of enemies in the castle with his loud, aggressive demeanor and "distracting" confrontations with multiple cast members. But he outdid himself in episode 5 by verbally attacking Colton, arguing that he was a Traitor because "nobody in this room would be better at holding a secret than you."
Colton starred on and dated women on The Bachelorette and The Bachelor before coming out as gay in 2021, after he claimed he was being blackmailed by someone who had threatened to out him. The year before Colton came out, his ex Cassie Randolph (who won his season of The Bachelor) filed a restraining order against him for allegedly stalking her, saying he secretly put a tracking device on her car.
During the Traitors roundtable, Colton and other cast members immediately fired back at Michael for his comment that seemed to be about hiding his sexuality for most of his life. However, Michael tried to argue that the remark had "nothing to do with it," and he meant it only from within the context of the game. But the damage was already done, and Michael was banished by the majority of the cast — with most of them admitting their decision had nothing to do with the game, and more because of his comment to Colton. Michael apologized in his final confessional, once again claiming that "it had nothing to do with his sexuality."
Below, Colton opens up to Entertainment Weekly about Michael's personal attack, why he went on The Traitors after his own rocky reality TV past, what to expect from the rest of this season, and more. [As a condition of the interview, EW was not allowed to ask any questions regarding Colton's ex Cassie.]
Peacock
Michael Rapaport on 'The Traitors'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: At the roundtable, Michael attacked you by saying that "no one in this room would be better at holding a secret than you." What was your reaction to that in the moment?
COLTON UNDERWOOD: 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 reason I said yes to doing a show like The Traitors is it's not personal. The drama and the intensity of the show is always so game-focused, so I think that's what just threw me a little bit, is when it got personal and he was using me as a human being instead of my gameplay against me. That's what caught me off guard, and I think you felt that and saw it in the episode.
What was it like reliving that moment while watching the episode?
Anytime you have to watch yourself back on TV, you don't know exactly how it's going to play. You never know what's included, what's dialed back, what is a little bit more intense. I had friends over — we had a little viewing party with some of my closest friends and my husband, and it was really nice having them there for it… It's been a big change since the last time I was on television in a capacity like this, just making sure I had the right support system and people having my back.
A lot of the cast agreed that Michael's comment was a low blow about your sexuality, but he claimed it had "nothing to do" with that. What do you believe he meant?
In the short time that I got to know Michael, he was self-aware enough. 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 towards 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.
Euan Cherry/PEACOCK
Colton Underwood on 'The Traitors'
But do you think that he was referring to your sexuality? He said that he meant it just in regards to your game, but it's hard to imagine that he didn't mean it in a personal way about you. Especially with the specific words he used.
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. 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 that headspace of where I was at during my lowest.
What did you think of how he tried to walk back his comment immediately?
He apologized towards the end, like, "I didn't mean it," so I have to take him for his word. I'm not holding a grudge against him, but I do think it is important for me in my life at this point to start standing up for myself. 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.
Have you spoken with Michael since this roundtable and his exit?
No. Him and I have exchanged a conversation that, for right now, is being kept private. And obviously we'll have to see each other again at the reunion. So there will definitely be a lot for us to talk about then. It's a very intense show. These fans are very intense.
Euan Cherry/Peacock
Lisa Rinna, Colton Underwood, Eric Nam, Monét X Change, Candiace Dillard Bassett on 'The Traitors'
What's your relationship like with the rest of the cast? Who are you still close with now, and who do you have beef with?
I think "beef" is the wrong word. I mean, I think we were all pretty aware that this was a competition and a game show. Within the game, of course there was beef and frustrations and moments that you're like, "I just wish I could look at them and be like, 'You have to trust me on this.'" I'm really close with Maura, really close with Mark. I have a good relationship with a lot of the cast, even a few of the Traitors who I have a friendly banter with.
Do you think Michael would have been banished regardless at this roundtable? Did you already have the votes against him, or was that comment to you the final nail in his coffin?
Michael had the votes for him literally since the first week after the whole Porsha incident. It was just a matter of being strategic from the Faithfuls' point of view of wasting a banishment on somebody who, at the time, we didn't fully believe to even be a Traitor. Is this week the right week? What week do we do this? Because it became pretty obvious the Traitors are not going to murder him, because he's good for their gameplay.
At this point, did you think he was a Faithful?
No, I still had some suspicions, and you get to see that play in the episode. I'd come for somebody pretty much every episode, but I tried to keep it in the context of the game. I didn't want to bring any outside bias or any opinions of who these people were outside of this. It needed to be solid facts. Even if they weren't the strongest pieces of evidence, they were still, in my opinion, evidence [that he was a Traitor].
Euan Cherry/Peacock
'The Traitors' season 4
While you wanted to keep it based on the game, he made it personal against you, which then resulted in the roundtable making it personal against him instead. Some cast members straight up said they didn't care whether he was a Faithful, they just wanted him out of the game.
I just didn't want to stoop to his level. I wanted to get the game back on track. Enough distractions. He did that the entire game, and maybe that was his game strategy, and I think you have to respect everybody's strategy coming in to play this game, but my goal was never to go blow-for-blow. I feel confident in myself for being able to hold my own when it came to defending myself and presenting the evidence that I had. But as far as getting somebody back or being vengeful in a comment, that was never a strategy for me.
Tell me more about what went into your decision to go on The Traitors, since the premise of the show is they cast reality TV villains to play this game of deception. Did you view yourself as a villain based on your reality TV past?
No. If anything I have enough self-awareness and I'm in a place in my career where I understand reality personalities are polarizing. That goes for a lot of the talent that was on this show — people either are obsessed with them — they really, really love them, or they love to hate-watch them. The understanding that I had is like, yes, I have some incredible and awesome fans, and some people who have been so supportive of me over the years throughout all of the shows that I've been on. But I also understand there's people who aren't rooting for me or aren't fans of me. And when they see me back on their television, they definitely have something to say.
Taking that into account, did you ask to be a Traitor or a Faithful?
At the beginning of the game, I was down more so to be a Traitor. But I told Alan, "I'm going to work my butt off and try as hard as I can for whatever role you give me."
Did you have any concerns about how going on The Traitors could impact your reputation, or how potentially getting chosen as a Traitor could fuel the fire of people who aren't fans of yours?
Yes, of course it crossed my mind. But I think for the most part people understand that this is a competition in a game show. That's ultimately what made me say yes to this — it's a fun opportunity to go play a game and to be a part of a show that is so successful and is Emmy-winning and has incredible ratings. It was a true honor… And if I had to guess, I'm assuming people like to sort of plug-and-play certain archetypes of players, like, "They're doing what Dylan did last season," or "they're doing what Gabby's route was." I'm not going to play somebody else's game. I'm not here to be Dylan Efron. I'm not here to be Pilot Pete. I want to play how I want to play, and there's probably people who are big fans of it and there's probably people who don't like the way that I'm going about it, but that was just the game that I chose to play.
Euan Cherry/Peacock
'The Traitors' season 4
You've been aggressively rallying votes for two roundtables in a row, and we've seen you starting to making a case against a third player. Did you come into this season with that strategy in mind?
Once you're assigned Faithful, you have little to no control in the game other than that banishment table. Your power is only as strong as your ability to get everybody on the same page to vote people off the way you want them to vote and for who you want to target. I naturally fell into this leadership role because people would come up to me and ask, "Who are you voting for? Who are we going for tonight?" And I wasn't afraid to say people's names. I just remember at one point in the game being a little frustrated of like, okay, somebody else has to give a name. I can't be the one name-dropping everybody at all times. Every single day we have to banish somebody, and the Traitors have to murder somebody, so we have to do this one way or another. Let's try to work together here.
What can you reveal about how that goes for you moving forward?
I really encourage people to throw names out because getting tested at the table is the only way for us to treat this as the pressure-cooker moment. How are people going to crack under pressure? Are we going to discover a Traitor because their defense doesn't hold up or because they gave up or they misspeak in their defense? I welcome people challenging me at that table and you'll see a glimpse of that too. I have a lot of heat on me at this moment and people have a lot of questions, they have a lot of thoughts, and I welcome it… I've never really wanted to toss out multiple names like Tiffany did, but at the end of episode 5, you see I start honing in on Lisa. Strap in, it's going to get good.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Traitors releases new episodes every Thursday on Peacock.
on Entertainment Weekly
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