Cassie Randolph says Colton Underwood stalked her in restraining order: How ‘Bachelor’ couple's breakup soured
Cassie Randolph, the winner of season 23 of ‘The Bachelor’ has reportedly filed for a restraining order against her ex Colton Underwood, less than four months after the pair announced their breakup. According to court records, Randolph filed the order on Friday, September 11, in Los Angeles.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Randolph claimed that Underwood has been stalking and harassing her with unsettling text messages. She claimed that Underwood went as far as planting a tracking device on her car. It was reportedly taped to the bottom of the back bumper of her car to keep track of her whereabouts.
Randolph has also claimed that Underwood has been showing up uninvited to her L.A. apartment and parent's house in Huntington Beach, California. She claimed that on multiple occasions, he has taken walks to her apartment complex and loitered in the alley outside her bedroom window at her parent's house at 2 am.
The text messages, Randolph claimed, included Underwood accusing her of hanging out with her old ex-boyfriend. She also alleged that Underwood sent anonymous text messages to her and to himself pretending to also be a victim of the anonymous stalker. She mentioned that Underwood later admitted to sending the messages and planting the tracking device. It's currently unclear if a judge has signed off on the order.
Underwood picked Randolph at the end of his season of ‘The Bachelor’ in 2019. The two, however, never got engaged. The couple announced their split in May 2020. The couple put on a united front when they announced their breakup on social media. Randolph even expressed confidence that they would remain in each other's lives. “With all that we have gone through, we have a special bond that will always be there," Randolph said then. “I love Colton very much and have an enormous amount of respect for him. We have both learned and grown so much these past couple years, and will always have each other's back. Always.”
Underwood said at that time, “Sometimes people are just meant to be friends -- and that's okay. We both have grown immensely and been through so much together -- so this isn't the end of our story, it's the start of a whole new chapter for us.”
But eventually, things became noticeably sour. In July, Randolph accused Underwood of attempting to “monetize” their breakup. Underwood had said that he's ready to speak out about the breakup, He reportedly shared on his Instagram Story, “These last few weeks have been challenging because, by now, you all know I'm an open book and I enjoy sharing my life with y'all. When our relationship ended we agreed to handle things as privately as possible as we attempted to navigate our new relationship as friends."
"Every experience provides us with an opportunity for growth. If you've been kind enough to have followed our story you've been with us through all of the ups and downs which have taught me so many lessons," he further wrote. "I've come to realize when you're in the thick of it you just need to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective, in doing so I have gained so much clarity about what I want and more importantly what I need in a relationship.”
Following this, Randolph took to her Instagram Story to address his comments. “I would like to state that I do not wish to create an online petty war. Colton, as you know we made an agreement to not publicly discuss our break up. I have honored this, as have you thus far."
She added, “I don't want to make enemies with or turn my back on the franchise,” before saying, “Colton, your last Instagram post saddened me, but also left me frustrated. It seems you are subtly engaging in a tactic that peppers in aggressive comments such as 'that obviously changed this week' in order to make me look like the bad one.”
She further said, addressing Underwood, “On Monday evening, you informed me you intend to monetize our breakup by writing a new chapter to discuss your experience with COVID (where you stayed in my family's house during your recovery) & about our breakup. You have also refused to give me any sort of approval on the chapter you will be writing, which will heavily feature me... This seems a bit unfair to me. Colton, you can do what you want, but please do not have a double standard.”
The former couple reportedly unfollowed each other on social media at the end of August.