{"id":159894,"date":"2025-09-25T16:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159894\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:57:09","slug":"the-golden-bachelor-contestants-immediately-slam-mel-owens-for-saying-he-refuses-to-date-anyone-over-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159894\/","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Bachelor contestants immediately slam Mel Owens for saying he refuses to date anyone over 60"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Golden Bachelor <\/a>star Mel Owens wasn\u2019t able to outrun his past comments<\/a> about his dating preferences on the season two premiere. <\/p>\n

Owens, 66, a former NFL linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams, was announced as the new Golden Bachelor <\/a>in April. Soon after, he faced backlash for saying he would refuse to date women over the age of 60.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re 60 or over, I\u2019m cutting them,\u201d the retired NFL player-turned-lawyer said on the In the Trenches podcast in June, while adding that he specifically told the producers of the ABC reality dating show<\/a> he only wanted women who were between the ages of 45 to 60. \u201cJust being honest,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to be fit, because I stay in shape and work out and stuff. And I told [producers] to try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens opened the season two premiere on Wednesday, directly addressing his controversial remarks, saying in a voiceover that he hopes, \u201cthese women don\u2019t judge me for what they\u2019ve heard. But I\u2019m sure they will. I just hope I can redeem myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RetiredRetired NFL linebacker Mel Owens leads season two of ‘The Golden Bachelor’ (Disney)<\/p>\n

During the two-hour episode, he met the 23 senior-aged women<\/a>, all of whom are competing for his heart and their second chance at love. Of the contestants, 22 women are over 60, and one contestant is in her 50s.<\/p>\n

Upon exiting their limos to greet Owens, many of the women openly confronted him about his previous remarks. <\/p>\n

Diane, a 71-year-old librarian and passionate hockey player, jokingly asked him: \u201cWhat the puck was that interview about on that podcast?\u201d<\/p>\n

He instantly apologized, with Diane adding in a video voiceover: \u201cI\u2019m here to prove attractiveness and spunk don\u2019t end at 60.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carla, 62, a former model, shared a similar sentiment. \u201cI\u2019m here to break your stereotype of women over 60,\u201d she told Owens. <\/p>\n

He was later introduced to Peg, 62, a retired firefighter and bomb tech. In her introduction video clip, she showed off her rollerblading skills. \u201cHey, Mel, no fake hips here,\u201d she teased. <\/p>\n

After connecting with each woman, Owens entered the villa to address the group as a whole. <\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely apologize,\u201d he said, acknowledging that his earlier remarks were \u201cinsensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

His apology resonated with the women, with one praising him. \u201cHe not only owned it,\u201d they said in a piece-to-camera, \u201che owned it upfront.\u201d<\/p>\n

New episodes of season two of The Golden Bachelor air Wednesdays on ABC at 9 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-159894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}