Not playing by the rules! Colton Underwood knew which women he had his eye on in the beginning of season 23 of The Bachelor — however, they weren’t always the people he’d land dates with, thanks to the production team.
“They always asked to rank the girls. And very early on, Hannah [Godwin] was up there. And she got left off of a date,” Underwood, 27, revealed during a recent episode of the “This American Life” podcast. “I sort of recall remember feeling a little burnt when they did that. I was like, ‘So let me get this straight. Hannah’s number one on my list right now, and she’s not getting a date this week?’”
The former NFL player realized what was happening and decided to flip the script.
“So from there on out, I was like, ‘All right, if you’re going to do that to my top girls, I’m not really going to tell you who my top girls are, because I don’t want you messing with them,’” he continued. “So in a weird way, I tried to defend myself and defend the girls by not being truthful to them who my top was.”
However, the results didn’t turn out his way. Since the producers thought Godwin was his No. 1 choice, they didn’t know he was in love with Cassie Randolph and didn’t think that her leaving would affect him the way it did. When she told Underwood he was leaving, he got angry.
“I was thinking I just got screwed. I was thinking that that wasn’t her doing. I know what the format of the show is. And for me hearing, ‘Hey, by the way, my dad came back,’ really sparked something in me. I was like, OK. So I don’t have the control I thought I had,” Underwood continued. “If I feel like my relationship’s going to be messed with or toyed with at all, I’m going to be done. Especially at this point, I’ve completely fallen in love. I’ve completely, like, gave myself all to her. I mean, I had nothing to lose at that point besides the girl and the woman that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
The Bachelor in Paradise alum then revealed that in his head, he went through all the scenarios — including how to get a new passport to leave since he didn’t have it with him — and that’s when the fence jump occurred.
“I’m done. I wanted to be done. I didn’t want to talk to the people on the show. I was about to pay for my own flight to get home. I literally was done talking to everybody,” the Indiana native recalled. “So I went up, I grabbed my wallet, and I remember opening the door and the first thing I see is a camera right there. And if I had any regrets from the night, the only regret would be is actually hitting and putting a hand on the camera because that’s not my property. But I was heated, so I hit the camera just to get it out of my way and went down the stairs. And that’s when I undid my mic.”
He later jumped the fence and hid when Chris Harrison and co. started chasing him. He jumped in ditches and hopped “personal fences” but got worried when he heard animals. After two hours, he returned. He knew that the only way not to be filmed was to speak with the show’s therapist — conversations that are never on camera — so he did that for an hour while trying to figure out his next move.
Luckily, it ended up the way he wanted: He got to say goodbye to the other women and win back Cassie.
