The Golden Bachelor’s Mel Owens Offers Mea Culpa for ‘Insensitive’ Comments About Older Women: ‘I’ve Learned a Lot’

The new star of The Golden Bachelor was a little tarnished by recent comments he made about dating older women, but he’s trying to make amends.

In a new interview with Glamour, Mel Owens — who is set to star in the second season of ABC’s senior dating competition — confronts the backlash he received when he said in a podcast interview in June that he’d eliminate any contestants age 60 or older. (Owens is 66, for the record.)

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Owens is now backtracking on those comments, saying they “were a mistake by me. It’s unfair. It’s insensitive… and I want to earn it back.” Owens is currently two weeks into shooting his season of The Golden Bachelor, and he reveals he apologized to the women as well: “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.'”

The women on Owens’ season are in their 60s, he says, and he was “absolutely shocked” at how “active” and “brilliant” they are. (ABC has not yet revealed the women competing in Mel’s season.) They also got a little revenge on him, he hints: “One of the dates was a roast. It was brutal. They were killing me… It was good because I earned that, and I took it and I deserved it, and it landed squarely on me.”

Owens blames his controversial comments on his lack of familiarity with the show: “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.” He also says he preferred younger women because “my reference… was when I was dating at 39, 40. I hadn’t dated in 26 years, so I had no clue.”

He hopes fans who wrote off the show after his comments will give it another chance: “Hopefully the show will show that the women that are in their golden years, that are doing these amazing things. It’s inspirational.” The experience so far has been “life-altering” for him, he adds: “I’ve learned a lot.”

Owens’ season of The Golden Bachelor premieres Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8/7c on ABC. Will you be tuning in? Let us know in the comments.

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