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Bachelor Nation, The Golden Bachelor Season 2 is nearly right here. The second season of the hit ABC actuality courting collection premieres on Wednesday night and can observe Mel Owens, a 66-year-old former NFL participant, in his seek for love.
Owens’s flip because the main man comes two years after Gerry Turner, then 72, served because the inaugural Golden Bachelor in 2023. Joan Vassos, then 61, in the meantime, took her flip at discovering love as the primary Golden Bachelorette in 2024.
ABC first unveiled Owens because the upcoming Golden Bachelor in April, whereas the 23 seniors vying for his coronary heart had been revealed earlier this month. The months main as much as Owens’s season, nonetheless, have been rife with controversy as a result of feedback he made concerning his expectations concerning the ages and bodily look of the present’s feminine contestants.
Regardless of calls from followers to exchange Owens because the Golden Bachelor, ABC has determined to stay with him because the Season 2 lead. Owens, who has since apologized for his remarks, continues to be hoping to seek out lasting love on the present.
Forward of Wednesday night time’s season premiere, we’re taking a better take a look at the whole lot there’s to learn about Owens.
Who’s Mel Owens?
Owens is a 66-year-old NFL participant turned lawyer. The previous skilled athlete, who beforehand performed for the Los Angeles Rams from 1981 to 1989, was born and raised in Detroit and attended the College of Michigan. Following his retirement from the NFL, Owens relocated to Orange County in California, the place he turned a sports activities lawyer specializing in employees’ compensation.
He was married to his “past love,” Fabiana Pimentel, from 2002 to 2020. Pimentel, with whom Owens has two sons, Lucas, 20, and Andre, 18, filed for divorce in 2020.
How did Owens find yourself on ‘The Golden Bachelor’?
Whereas he isn’t a fan of the Bachelor franchise himself, a good friend of Owens urged him to use for The Golden Bachelor. He did and was forged because the Season 2 lead.
“It is this fortuitous different route. It isn’t one thing I’d have finished totally alone,” Owens informed USA Right now.
What’s the controversy?
The controversy surrounding Owens started in June, when he appeared on the MGoBlue podcast for his alma mater, the College of Michigan. It was throughout this dialog that Owens specified what he needed in a companion — and the way previous he needed her to be.
“They ask me, ‘What’s your choice?’ So I simply mentioned 45 to 60, simply being sincere,” he mentioned on the podcast. “After which we had lunch with the manager producer. I mentioned, ‘You recognize, in the event that they’re 60 or over, I’m reducing them.’”
Owens was additionally much less forgiving about his perfect companion’s bodily attributes. When requested about his bodily “kind,” the previous NFLer mentioned he’s excited about girls who’re into health and who don’t have any synthetic physique components.
Owens mentioned of his perfect girl, “They requested me, ‘What’s my profile?’ Effectively, [the women] acquired to be match, as a result of I’m staying in form and figuring out and stuff. And I informed them, ‘Attempt to steer clear of the synthetic hips and the wigs, you realize, that type of stuff, proper?’”
Has Owens addressed the controversy?
Sure. Owens spoke with Leisure Tonight final week, at which level he acknowledged that his feedback had been in poor style.
“The feedback I made had been unfair and insensitive, however I apologized to them collectively,” Owens mentioned. “Wanting again on it, it was improper to say, and I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
Whereas chatting with Glamour in August, Owens publicly addressed his ageist feedback for the primary time. In the course of the interview, the lawyer revealed that he apologized to the ladies at the beginning of filming.
“I apologized to the ladies on the present. Once I first walked in, I addressed it. I apologized to them. I mentioned, ‘It was unfair, insensitive. I need to earn it again. Simply give me the possibility.’ And hopefully, these final two weeks I earned a few of that again,” he mentioned.
The ladies on his season, Owens informed Glamour, appeared receptive to his apology.
“Yeah, throughout our one-on-ones, 12 or 15 of them mentioned, ‘We recognize the apology, and it meant quite a bit to us,’” he recalled.
Owens additionally claimed that he didn’t learn about The Golden Bachelor’s typical age vary for contestants earlier than becoming a member of the present. In the course of the present’s inaugural season, Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner was 72 years previous, and the contestants had been between 60 and 75 years previous.
“I didn’t know the age vary as a result of I wasn’t watching it. I’m considering, to me, the age vary was 45 to 60. That’s my age vary. I’m considering that’s the gold years for me. My reference, once more, was once I was courting at 39, 40. I hadn’t dated in 26 years, so I had no clue. And that’s why I mentioned that remark. I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” Owens informed Glamour.
What does Owens consider the backlash?
Owens believes the backlash is warranted, although he hopes that viewers tune in to his season of The Golden Bachelor anyway.
“You must be earnest in your work to get the belief again,” Owens informed Glamour. “All people there’s good, they usually can see by way of you in the event you’re mendacity otherwise you don’t imply what you say. That’s why I say tuned in. Hopefully the present will present that the ladies which are of their golden years, which are doing these superb issues. It’s inspirational.”
What else has Owens mentioned about his season?
After Owens’s feedback went viral, some Bachelor Nation followers requested that he be eliminated because the Season 2 lead. Whereas chatting with USA Right now final week, nonetheless, Owens revealed that he had no intention of ever stepping down because the Golden Bachelor.
“I by no means contemplated stepping away. By no means did,” he mentioned. “I don’t bear in mind precisely the dialog [with the show’s producers], however they stood by me, and fortunately they did, and I had a good time.”
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