Owens’s season of “The Golden Bachelor” debuts on ABC, Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
Bachelor Nation, The Golden Bachelor Season 2 is almost here. The second season of the hit ABC reality dating series premieres on Wednesday evening and will follow Mel Owens, a 66-year-old former NFL player, in his search for love.
Owens’s turn as the leading man comes two years after Gerry Turner, then 72, served as the inaugural Golden Bachelor in 2023. Joan Vassos, then 61, meanwhile, took her turn at finding love as the first Golden Bachelorette in 2024.
ABC first unveiled Owens as the upcoming Golden Bachelor in April, while the 23 seniors vying for his heart were revealed earlier this month. The months leading up to Owens’s season, however, have been rife with controversy due to comments he made regarding his expectations about the ages and physical appearance of the show’s female contestants.
Despite calls from fans to replace Owens as the Golden Bachelor, ABC has decided to stick with him as the Season 2 lead. Owens, who has since apologized for his remarks, is still hoping to find lasting love on the show.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s season premiere, we’re taking a closer look at everything there is to know about Owens.
Who is Mel Owens?
Owens is a 66-year-old NFL player turned lawyer. The former professional athlete, who previously played for the Los Angeles Rams from 1981 to 1989, was born and raised in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan. Following his retirement from the NFL, Owens relocated to Orange County in California, where he became a sports lawyer specializing in workers’ compensation.
He was married to his “first 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 end up on ‘The Golden Bachelor’?
While he isn’t a fan of the Bachelor franchise himself, a friend of Owens urged him to apply for The Golden Bachelor. He did and was cast as the Season 2 lead.
“It’s this fortuitous other route. It’s not something I would have done entirely on my own,” Owens told USA Today.
What’s the controversy?
The controversy surrounding Owens began in June, when he appeared on the MGoBlue podcast for his alma mater, the University of Michigan. It was during this conversation that Owens specified what he wanted in a partner — and how old he wanted her to be.
“They ask me, ‘What’s your preference?’ So I just said 45 to 60, just being honest,” he said on the podcast. “And then we had lunch with the executive producer. I said, ‘You know, if they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.’”
Owens was also less forgiving about his ideal partner’s physical attributes. When asked about his physical “type,” the former NFLer said he’s interested in women who are into fitness and who don’t have any artificial body parts.
Owens said of his ideal woman, “They asked me, ‘What is my profile?’ Well, [the women] got to be fit, because I’m staying in shape and working out and stuff. And I told them, ‘Try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs, you know, that kind of stuff, right?’”
Has Owens addressed the controversy?
Yes. Owens spoke with Entertainment Tonight last week, at which point he acknowledged that his comments were in poor taste.
“The comments I made were unfair and insensitive, but I apologized to them collectively,” Owens said. “Looking back on it, it was wrong to say, and I shouldn’t have said it.”
While chatting with Glamour in August, Owens publicly addressed his ageist comments for the first time. During the interview, the lawyer revealed that he apologized to the women at the start of filming.
“I apologized to the women on the show. When I first walked in, I addressed it. I apologized to them. I said, ‘It was unfair, insensitive. I want to earn it back. Just give me the chance.’ And hopefully, these last two weeks I earned some of that back,” he said.
The women on his season, Owens told Glamour, seemed receptive to his apology.
“Yeah, during our one-on-ones, 12 or 15 of them said, ‘We appreciate the apology, and it meant a lot to us,’” he recalled.
Owens also claimed that he didn’t know about The Golden Bachelor’s typical age range for contestants before joining the show. During the show’s inaugural season, Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner was 72 years old, and the contestants were between 60 and 75 years old.
“I didn’t know the age range because I wasn’t watching it. I’m thinking, to me, the age range was 45 to 60. That’s my age range. I’m thinking that’s the gold years for me. My reference, again, was when I was dating at 39, 40. I hadn’t dated in 26 years, so I had no clue. And that’s why I said that comment. I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” Owens told Glamour.
What does Owens think of the backlash?
Owens believes the backlash is warranted, though he hopes that viewers tune in to his season of The Golden Bachelor anyway.
“You have to be earnest in your work to get the trust back,” Owens told Glamour. “Everybody there is smart, and they can see through you if you’re lying or you don’t mean what you say. That’s why I say tuned in. Hopefully the show will show that the women that are in their golden years, that are doing these amazing things. It’s inspirational.”
What else has Owens said about his season?
After Owens’s comments went viral, some Bachelor Nation fans requested that he be removed as the Season 2 lead. While chatting with USA Today last week, however, Owens revealed that he had no intention of ever stepping down as the Golden Bachelor.
“I never contemplated stepping away. Never did,” he said. “I don’t remember exactly the conversation [with the show’s producers], but they stood by me, and thankfully they did, and I had a great time.”
