Jason Tartick: 'Calculated' Colton Underwood Unfollowed Me and Kaitlyn

In Bachelor Nation, the drama doesn’t stay solely on screen. Jason Tartick is opening up about where he and Kaitlyn Bristowe stand with Colton Underwood — and revealed that things aren’t so rosy between them.

The investment banker, 33, discussed his experience on the ABC dating series during the Monday, April 4, episode of his “Trading Secrets” podcast, confessing that “there’s no way” he would have been a more successful Bachelor than Underwood, 30, who was the season 23 lead in 2019.

“One of the big reasons is because I’m boring. I’m vanilla,” Tartick said. “They know I wouldn’t have been manipulated, I wouldn’t have done crazy s–t. He was exactly right. He nailed it.”

When guest David Arduin asked whether Tartick still keeps in touch with the First Time author, the podcaster was quick to say no. “[I] don’t talk to him. Ironically enough, just found out he recently unfollowed Kaitlyn and I,” the New York native continued. “Not sure why. We returned the favor.”

The Restart Roadmap author called Underwood “very calculated” while reflecting on the “timeline” of their social media fallout. “He had asked me several times to interview to be on one of the Netflix shows for him. This was before his [show] Coming Out Colton,” Tartick alleged. “He was gonna have a show with Cassie [Randolph], then he was gonna have a show by himself with his friends. He was working every angle to get a Netflix show. And I commend him, you know, he knows what he wants and he goes for it. It’s just interesting. I was like, ‘Dude, whatever you need, however I can help. If you need Kaitlyn, I’ll get Kaitlyn to interview. Whatever we can do to help you.'”

Tartick conceded that he “didn’t know much” about the specifics of Underwood’s projects, but he was still willing to help out a friend. (Both men competed on Becca Kufrin‘s season 14 of The Bachelorette and landed in the final four.)

“I interviewed for two or three things for Colton with Netflix and then he came to Nashville in the summer, hung out with Kaitlyn and I. [He] was a little distant, I think that was when his whole thing was happening,” the entrepreneur continued. “He was still him. He was a little aloof with where he said he would be and why. And then all this s–t happened. I remember he FaceTimed Cassie a couple of times, which was interesting, and like, he would [hold] it up with Kaitlyn and I.”

Underwood and Randolph, 26, began their romance on season 23 of The Bachelor and dated until May 2020. After they called it quits, the California native requested a temporary restraining order against her ex, alleging that he was stalking and harassing her. The filing was dropped in November 2020, and the former football player publicly came out as gay the following April.

“I think that was sort of a huge wake-up call. I’m sad that it even got to that point to where that had to be my wake-up call and me affecting other people in my life was sort of the moment that I realized I had to come out,” Underwood exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2021, crediting the legal drama with helping him embrace his identity. “Obviously, I wish I would have had the courage to come out without having to be pushed.”

Tartick, for his part, got engaged to Bristowe in May 2021 after more than two years of dating. When asked where he currently stands with Underwood, the University of Rochester grad said, “There’s just so many open questions. … We were so close.”

While Tartick admitted that he hasn’t seen Coming Out Colton, which debuted on Netflix last year, he was glad to see his former costar “living his happy life” with fiancé Jordan C. Brown. However, he appeared to put his support behind Randolph, who they spent time with at the season 26 Bachelor finale. The speech pathology student later appeared on Bristowe’s “Off the Vine” podcast.

“I’ve heard through the show he takes a lot of ownership for what happened to Cassie. … I feel so sad and sorry for what she went through,” Tartick added. “But I’m also happy that Colton, it seems like, has acknowledged that, moved on and found happiness. … And that’s where the cookie crumbles with the whole Colton situation.”