It has been just a month since Colton Underwood came out on "Good Morning America" to host Robin Roberts. Since then he announced a Netflix reality series about his coming out, as well as being slammed for his relationship with ex-Carrie Rudolph who took out a restraining order against him last year for stalking. But in an exclusive interview with Variety, Underwood did a deep-dive into the reasons for his coming out when he did, and the story is darker than initially thought. "The confession was prompted not by liberation but out of fear," Variety writes. "'I'll just say it,' Underwood reveals on a recent afternoon, still adjusting to his new life as an openly gay man. 'I, at one point, during my rock bottom and spiral, was getting blackmailed. Nobody knows I was blackmailed'." As he explained it, he was living in L.A. and visited a gay spa. Not long after, he received an anonymous call, which has been reviewed by Variety, claiming that someone took nude pics of him at the venue. "Underwood never saw the alleged photos and explains he was at the spa "just to look," saying he 'should have never been there.' The unidentified sender threatened to 'out' him in the press, and in a panic of paranoia, Underwood forwarded the email to his publicist, Alex Spieller, which forced him to finally have an honest conversation about his sexual orientation. On his "spiral" Underwood continued "It got so dark that he took pills one night last summer, hoping he'd never wake up. 'I tried to end my life, and it didn't work,' he tells Variety. 'That was the saddest and most confused and most hurt' he could remember himself feeling." Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️‍? (?: Colton Underwood / Instagram / @coltonunderwood)

It has been just a month since Colton Underwood came out on "Good Morning America" to host Robin Roberts. Since then he announced a Netflix reality series about his coming out, as well as being slammed for his relationship with ex-Carrie Rudolph who took out a restraining order against him last year for stalking. But in an exclusive interview with Variety, Underwood did a deep-dive into the reasons for his coming out when he did, and the story is darker than initially thought. "The confession was prompted not by liberation but out of fear," Variety writes. "'I'll just say it,' Underwood reveals on a recent afternoon, still adjusting to his new life as an openly gay man. 'I, at one point, during my rock bottom and spiral, was getting blackmailed. Nobody knows I was blackmailed'." As he explained it, he was living in L.A. and visited a gay spa. Not long after, he received an anonymous call, which has been reviewed by Variety, claiming that someone took nude pics of him at the venue. "Underwood never saw the alleged photos and explains he was at the spa "just to look," saying he 'should have never been there.' The unidentified sender threatened to 'out' him in the press, and in a panic of paranoia, Underwood forwarded the email to his publicist, Alex Spieller, which forced him to finally have an honest conversation about his sexual orientation. On his "spiral" Underwood continued "It got so dark that he took pills one night last summer, hoping he'd never wake up. 'I tried to end my life, and it didn't work,' he tells Variety. 'That was the saddest and most confused and most hurt' he could remember himself feeling." Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️‍? (?: Colton Underwood / Instagram / @coltonunderwood)