Golden Bachelor Mel Owens is walking back his controversial comments about just how golden he wants his dates to be.
The 66-year-old star of the upcoming senior dating show landed in hot water after a recent podcast in which he expressed preferences for only being receptive to women on the reality show who were between the ages of 45 and 60. “If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them,” he said, in one of the most controversial statements.
But now, two months later, in a new Glamour magazine interview, Owens is apologizing, his new enlightenment coming after a conversation with a 65-year-old female friend.
Says Owens, a former Los Angeles Rams NFL star, “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 insists his initial comments were not made with an intent to offend, but rather from a lack of understanding about the rule of the Golden Bachelor game. “I didn’t know anything about the Golden Bachelor ages,” he admitted. “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.”
Owens also notes in the interview that he apologized to the women contestants and took responsibility for his comments. “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.’”
Owens also notes that the women on the show good naturedly roasted him with some choice words. “One said, ‘Oh, when Mel was walking with me, he was using me as a cane.’ And I’m from Detroit, right? One said, ‘Like a Detroit pizza, he’s doughy, squishy, square, and crusty.’”
“It was good because I earned that,” Owens tells the magazine, “and I took it and I deserved it, and it landed squarely on me. They were throwing haymakers. It was good.”
The Golden Bachelor is set to return this fall on ABC.
