The Golden Bachelor’s emerging villain, Nicolle Kate, has opened up about how she wanted a different Golden Bachelor after Mel Owens made his controversial podcast comments.
Mel was announced as The Golden Bachelor’s Season 2 star in April, and then he sparked backlash two months later when he said he’d automatically cut women age “60 or over” during an appearance on the “MGoBlue” podcast with Jon Jansen.
“It bothered me a lot. I really wanted ABC to replace him, at first,” Nicolle admitted during the Monday, October 6 episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast.
And Nicolle clearly wasn’t alone.
Bachelor Nation expressed outrage and disgust over Mel’s “ageist” and “superficial” remarks on social media for months after the podcast episode was released, and there was a brief period of time when fans thought ABC was going to replace him as the show’s star.
“My impression was, ‘He’s got to be replaced because this is just bad, a bad feeling,'” Nicolle recalled.
“It was bad. It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth so to speak. I didn’t think it would be good.”
But ABC obviously chose to go forward with Mel as the leading man for Season 22.
“[Then] I thought, ‘Okay, you know what? We’re just going to have to deal with it,'” explained the 64-year-old yoga instructor from Miami Beach, FL.
The women therefore seemed relieved and vindicated when Mel issued an apology on Night 1 preceding the first cocktail party of the season.
Mel apologized to his entire cast of ladies for offending them and hurting their feelings.
Mel pointed out how age is just a number, and he claimed that he didn’t mean what he had said, especially after meeting such beautiful and impressive women over the age of 60. The oldest woman in Mel’s cast was 77.
“He came in and addressed his podcast remarks, and that was the first thing he did, and he was very, very genuine and very heartfelt,” Nicolle told “Bachelor Happy Hour” co-hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
“It felt really good to see him so vulnerable and humbled, and that he asked for forgiveness and for us to allow him to earn it back. And that was a really great way to start.”
Nicolle reiterated how Mel seemed humbled by his Night 1 experience on The Bachelor and his “humanity really showed” right away.
“So when I had my one-on-one with him, I said, ‘Thank you so much for that. It meant a lot, and we’re good,'” Nicole shared.
“[But] there were other women who were still holding onto that, even more than I was.”
Like Nicolle, the recipient of Mel’s First Impression Rose, Gerri Flowers, was also disappointed in Mel’s podcast comments.
During her own recent appearance on “Bachelor Happy Hour,” Gerri acknowledged that it was a tough pill to swallow before filming commenced in July.
“I was like, ‘Hmm, what’s up with that?’ And then, you know, there were rumors that they were getting rid of him and they had a new [Golden Bachelor],” Gerri shared.
“And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going!’ Because some people said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t go! Why are you going?'”
But Gerri ultimately decided to cut Mel some slack and “give him a break.”
Gerri pointed out how no one is perfect and Mel deserved a little grace in that moment.
Before The Golden Bachelor premiered its second season on ABC, Mel told Glamour magazine that his podcast comments were “unfair” and “insensitive.”
Mel owned up to having made a big mistake, and he said, “I want to earn it back. I have to earn it back every single moment that I’m on the show… The spirit has no age. It’s true. And also, you can change. That’s the key. It is not too late to change.”
Nicolle is still on Mel’s The Golden Bachelor journey, and she appears to be a frontrunner.
Nicolle, however, has sparked a little drama by aggressively pursuing and making out with Mel in front of the other bachelorettes.
During The Golden Bachelor’s latest episode, Mel crowned Nicolle the winner of a group-date roast and so they got to spend some alone time together that evening.
Mel gave Nicolle a kiss, and he said the chemistry between them was good. Mel said she was definitely a person he could see being in his life forever.
