66-year-old “Golden Bachelor” star Mel Owens has acknowledged that his recent comments about only dating women younger than him were “insensitive.”
The former NFL player turned lawyer and star of ABC’s forthcoming sophomore season of “The Golden Bachelor” came under heavy fire in late June when he went on a sports podcast and said he told “Bachelor” producers that he only wanted them to find women between the ages of 45 and 60. “If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them,” he recounted telling one producer. “This is not ‘The Silver Bachelor,’ this is ‘The Golden Bachelor.’”
“They’ve got to be fit, because I stay in shape and workout and stuff,” Owens added in the same interview about his dating requirements. “I told them to try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs.”
The online backlash to Owens’ comments was swift from fans of “The Golden Bachelor,” which is intended to celebrate older men and women, especially those who are in their 60s and 70s. Rumors began to swirl about Owens being replaced as the next “Golden Bachelor” star, but those never came to fruition. Instead, filming on the series’ second season began in late July and is ongoing.
That did not stop him from participating in an interview published Friday with Glamour, in which he walked back his previous comments and committed to earning back the trust of both viewers and the female contestants of his season. “Those [opinions and comments] were a mistake by me. It’s unfair. It’s insensitive,” Owens told Glamour. “I want to earn it back. I have to earn it back every single moment that I’m on the show.”
When he was asked if he knew that fans would be upset by his comments when he made them, Owens admitted, “At the moment, no.” It was only after a 65-year-old female friend of him called him that Owens realized what he had done.
“She said to me, ‘Mel…no. What are you doing?’ She goes, ‘I’m reading all about it.’ I didn’t know that it hit that hard. She goes, ‘You’ve got to right the wrong.’ So I listened to her,” the “Golden Bachelor” star recalled. “She said, ‘What you said was insensitive, and it’s just not who you are.’ My reference of dating was 39, 40 years old. I hadn’t dated in 26, 27 years. That’s what I told her. She goes, ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ve said some things that are just incredibly wrong.’ And I go, ‘I’ve got to apologize.’”
Owens insisted that the comments were not made to offend anyone. “I didn’t know anything about ‘The Golden Bachelor’ ages,” he told Glamour. “I didn’t know the age range because I wasn’t watching it.”
In addition to walking back his comments publicly, Owens said he also apologized in-person to his season’s female contestants. “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,’” he revealed. The women, in turn, were apparently given a chance to roast him on the show.
“I’m from Detroit, right? One said, ‘Like a Detroit pizza, he’s doughy, squishy, square, and crusty,’” Owens divulged. “It was good because I earned that, and I took it and I deserved it, and it landed squarely on me.”
As for whether or not he believes that disappointed fans should still give his season of “The Golden Bachelor” a chance, Owens commented, “If you don’t tune in, you’ll never know. So you’ve got to tune in. And again, I’m trying to earn it back. Watch the show and see if I earn it back.”
Owens’ season of “The Golden Bachelor” is set to premiere Wednesday, Sept. 24.
