Colton Underwood Reacts to Ex Tayshia Adams Becoming the Bachelorette

Colton Underwood is wishing ex Tayshia Adams well at the news that she is replacing Clare Crawley as the Season 16 Bachelorette, with the former Bachelor recalling one of the less romantic moments of their relationship. After reports surfaced Adams was called in when Crawley quit the franchise just two weeks into filming, Underwood tweeted alongside a winking emoji, “Congrats @TayshiaAdams — good luck and I hope you find yourself a better kisser.”

Adams, who made it to the final three of the former NFL player’s season before he broke things off to pursue Cassie Randolph, admitted on Bachelor in Paradise last September that Underwood needed a little help in the kissing department after Caitlin Clemmens and Sydney Lotuaco raised the subject. “Yeah, not gonna lie,” Adams said at the time. “But he got better by the end of the season… I think I’m a good teacher.”

ABC has yet to confirm that Adams was cast as the new Bachelorette, but a production insider told PEOPLE that Crawley ended her time on the season after falling in love with one of her suitors, with whom she was communicating during the filming shutdown in March caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “One of her potential guys found a way to get in touch with her and they began talking,” the source explained. “By the time filming officially began, they were basically already in love. No one else stood a chance. It just became so obvious from her subsequent few dates that her heart wasn’t in it and she just wasn’t feeling it. Then she said she wanted out.” As for Adams, whose name had been dropped in speculative conversations before Crawley was cast, she was apparently “game and ready to go.”

Rachel Lindsay, who was the first Black Bachelorette back in 2017, told Entertainment Tonight Monday she was “thrilled” to have Adam step in as the second lead of color. “When I stepped in as Bachelorette, I wanted to pave a way for more diversity, for more people who look like me and who didn’t look like the typical lead,” she told the outlet. “So to see another Bachelorette of color, I’m thrilled.” She continued that she is “more than happy to pass the torch” on to Adams, concluding, “I am so excited to see what she’s going to do, how she will represent herself and her journey to find love. Now she’s in the driver’s seat, and I’m excited to see her get this opportunity.”