Colton Underwood Controversy Resurfaces After Demi Burnett Slams 'Traitors' Season 4 Cast
Demi Burnett got blocked after calling out Colton’s spot on The Traitors — and she’s not sorry.
Published Jan. 14 2026, 2:53 p.m. ET
Colton Underwood kicked off 2026 by returning to reality TV — and not everyone was thrilled about it. The former Bachelor star was confirmed as part of the Season 4 cast of The Traitors. When the show premiered on Jan. 8, 2026, his name started trending again on social media.
Controversy surrounding Colton Underwood resurfaced after Demi Burnett took to X (formerly Twitter) and didn’t hold back. Demi noted that Colton being on The Traitors was “so cringe” before proceeding to blast him for using being gay as a “shock factor” with the hopes of distracting people so they forget he once stalked Cassie Randolph.
After that post gained traction, Demi shared a follow-up: “Colton blocked me.” Then she went even further, posting a video laying out the full story — from their shared season of The Bachelor to the legal drama that came afterward.
Why did the controversy surrounding Colton Underwood return to the spotlight?
The backlash began almost as soon as The Traitors premiered, with viewers — and former Bachelor cast member Demi — questioning why Colton was getting another platform despite the serious issues in his past.
In her Instagram video, Demi reminded viewers that after Colton and Cassie broke up in 2020, she filed a restraining order against him. According to court documents, per Life & Style, Cassie accused him of placing a tracking device on her car, sending threatening anonymous texts, and showing up uninvited to her home and her parents' house.
Though the restraining order was dropped two months later after a private agreement was reached, the story stuck. Colton’s behavior was widely discussed online and among fans of the franchise, sparking ongoing questions about his conduct and accountability.
Colton insists he didn't come out as a way to erase his history of stalking Cassie.
In April 2021, Colton came out as gay in an interview on Good Morning America, where he publicly apologized to Cassie and acknowledged his mistakes. “I messed up. I made a lot of bad choices,” he said, later adding that he wished he had “been courageous enough to fix [him]self before breaking anyone else.”
Later that year, he addressed the situation again in his Netflix docuseries Coming Out Colton. “I put a poor girl through a hell of my own insecurities." He also made it clear he didn’t want his coming out to be seen as a way to erase the past.
Cassie, for the most part, chose not to engage publicly. In a 2021 YouTube video, she said she wouldn’t be discussing the situation any further. “There’s a lot of layers to it,” she said. “The best thing for me is to move forward.”
Demi Burnett’s response shows that many still haven’t moved on from Colton’s past.
For a lot of fans, Colton’s casting on The Traitors feels like a rebranding — one that centers his identity as an out gay man, while glossing over the seriousness of what happened between him and Cassie. That tension is exactly what Demi tapped into, and her blunt delivery struck a chord online.
The fact that Colton apparently blocked Demi after she posted her thoughts only fueled more conversation. Many people rallied around her, praising her for saying what others were afraid to. Some questioned whether reality shows — especially those built on redemption arcs — are too quick to give problematic figures another shot without acknowledging the full story.