Mel Owens signed up to star on the second season of ABC‘s The Golden Bachelor and shocked with his comments about the women he doesn’t want on the show.
The 66-year-old former Los Angeles Rams NFL star, who is now a lawyer, made an appearance on a podcast where he drew a hard line on the age of the women he could consider dating.
Owens recently said on the MGoBlue Podcasts with Jon Jansen that casting producers asked for his preferences, to which he said, “45 to 60, just being honest.”
After he was selected to lead the new season of The Golden Bachelor, Owens had lunch with a producer and told them, “If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them,” adding, “This is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor.”
According to Owens, the producer then said, “But they’re going to be hot. Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it.”
“So he goes, ‘You can’t use the word cut,’ I go, ‘Well, that’s an NFL term,’” Owens added.
In the conversation with the producer, Owens said he had no say in who was cast on the show, but he specified that the women had “to be git, because I’m staying in shape and work out and stuff. And I told them [to] try and stay away from artificial hips and the wigs.”
Owens follows 72-year-old Gerry Turner, who was the first leading man in the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor. Turner found love with Theresa Nast, whom he married in January 2024. However, the marriage didn’t last long, as three months after exchanging their vows, they announced they were divorcing following his cancer diagnosis.
Deadline reached out to ABC for comment and will update the post when we hear back.
