ABC has announced the 23 seniors competing for roses this season.
Ahead of its Season 2 premiere on Sept. 24, ABC has unveiled the crop of women who'll be competing on The Golden Bachelor. This year's cast will be vying for the love of Mel Owens, a 66-year-old retired NFL player-turned-lawyer.
Alongside the Instagram captions "The GOLD standard 🌹💛" and "All that glitters is... GOLD 🌹✨," the official Bachelor Nation account shared individual photos of this season's cast. Ranging from 58 to 77 years old, the 23 women who will appear on Season 2 of The Golden Bachelor come from various cities and all walks of life.
Over the summer, there was speculation as to whether or not ABC would move forward with Owens as the Golden lead after he said on a podcast that he'd automatically eliminate women over 60 years old. In an August interview with Glamour, Owens publicly addressed his ageist 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.' And hopefully, these last two weeks I earned some of that back," he told the magazine.
As for why he agreed to go on The Golden Bachelor despite wanting to only date women under 60, Owens claimed he didn't know anything about the typical age range of the show's contestants. The first season of The Golden Bachelor, which starred 72-year-old Gerry Turner, featured contestants that were between 60 and 75 years old.
"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," he said.
The controversy began in June, when Owens appeared on the "MGoBlue" podcast for his alma mater, the University of Michigan. It was during this conversation that Owens revealed what he was looking for in a partner.
"They ask me, 'What's your preference?' So I just said 45 to 60, just being honest," Owens 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.'"
When asked about his physical "type," Owens said he was interested in women who prioritize their health and don't have any artificial body parts.
"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?'" he said.
Below are the 23 women competing for Owens' affection: