Colton Underwood “hooked up” with “married straight men” before his time on the “Bachelor” franchise.

“To protect myself, I would only hook up with married men. [Married] ‘straight’ men,” he explained during his Tuesday appearance on the “We Need To Talk” podcast.

“So that was sort of my rule that I would never break. When I was in the closet, that would be the only time I would ever hook up with men was if they were married … because they had more to lose than I did.

“I was very careful, even when I was physically experimenting with guys and trying to, like, figure myself out,” Underwood explained, noting that he did so because he was terrified of being outed as gay.

“So if they tried to, you know, ruin my career and my life for football, they had a whole family that they’d be risking as well,” Underwood continued. “So it’s a messed up thing to think through, but like it was a form of self [preservation]… it was just like a way to protect myself.”

The former NFL player joined Bachelor Nation for Becca Kufrin’s season of “The Bachelorette” before becoming the “Bachelor” in 2019.

While his season as the lead was being promoted on ABC, he was dubbed the first “Virgin Bachelor.”

“I remember I always got asked why I was a virgin. So that was the storyline that they wanted to run with, and I hated it ’cause I didn’t want that pressure, and then I also didn’t want people digging in because at that time I had hooked up with men,” he admitted.

The reality star insisted, however, that he never intended for his faux-virginity to become such a central focus of his story.

“My whole heart was like I’m not going to disclose to them that I’m a virgin no matter what,” he recalled. “I literally told them I was a virgin on night one of ‘The Bachelorette.’”

“I opened it up immediately, and I just gave them everything which they loved,” he continued. “So that’s unfortunately how it sort of came to be, and then it became my entire storyline.”

The “Traitors” alum also shared that he accepted the role of the “Bachelor” because he was convinced it would “force” him down a traditional path that would be accepted by his faith and his family.

“What I was telling myself is, ‘this is going to force me [to be straight],’ ” he said. “I’m going to be so publicly straight that I will never be able to be gay again.”

Underwood previously admitted to hooking up with married men before his time on the dating show in an interview with Variety, but clarified at the time that he did not have sex with them.

“When I say ‘hookups,’ not sex,” Underwood told the outlet. “I want to make that very clear that I did not have sex with a man, prior to that.”

Following his season of “The Bachelor,” Underwood dated contestant Cassie Randolph from March 2019 to May 2020. After their split, Randolph accused Underwood of stalking and harassing her.

Randolph was granted a temporary restraining order but later requested it be dismissed, with Underwood explaining at the time that they addressed her concerns and reached a “private agreement.”

Underwood ended up coming out as gay in April 2021 during an emotional, sit-down interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America.”

He wed Jordan C. Brown in March 2023, and the couple welcomed their first child via surrogate the following year.