Warning: The Golden Bachelor Season 2 spoilers ahead. He’s been one of Bachelor Nation’s most controversial leads, but does Mel get engaged in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale? He may have already revealed the answer.
Mel Owens, a 66-year-old lawyer and a retired NFL linebacker from Laguna Hills, California, was announced as the Season 2 Golden Bachelor on April 2025. However, less than two months later, he faced backlash for an interview he gave on the “MGoBlue Podcasts With Jon Jansen,” in which he claimed that the oldest woman he would date on The Golden Bachelor would be 60 years old when the producers asked, “What’s your preferences?” “I just said, ’45 to 60,’ just being honest,” Mel said on the podcast. “‘If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.’” The producer told him, “This is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor.”
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After facing backlash from his interview, Mel went on to apologize to fans—and his cast—in an interview with Glamour in August 2025, in which he recalled a conversation with a 65-year-old female friend who called him out for his comments. He apologized again to the women in his cast in the Season 2 premiere. “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,” Mel told Glamour. “She goes, ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ve said some things that are just incredibly wrong.’ And I go, ‘I’ve got to apologize.’”
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He continued, “I didn’t know anything about the Golden Bachelor ages. 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.”
His apology seemed to have been accepted by his cast, who fell hard for him throughout Season 2. But did Mel get engaged in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale? Read on for what he’s said.
Does Mel get engaged on The Golden Bachelor Season 2?
Reality Steve confirmed that Mel’s winner is on The Golden Bachelor Season 2 is Peg Munson, a 62-year-old Retired Firefighter and Bomb Tech from Las Vegas, Nevada. His runner-up was Cindy Cullers, a 60-year-old Retired Biomedical Engineer from Austin, Texas. Reality Steve also confirmed that Mel and Peg got engaged in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale.
While Mel did get engaged in the end, he hinted that an engagement wasn’t a priority to him in an interview with USA Today before his season’s premiere, in which he claimed that he prioritized finding love vs. getting married again. “Love is a good thing, it fills your heart, it makes you feel better, and it gives you a purpose,” he said. “I liked being in love. That’s the ultimate goal.”
As for his finale, Mel called the end to his season “brilliant” in an interview with Us Weekly in October 2025. “You have the setting, and I know who it is. It’s really emotional. And you’re a little nervous, but it’s so brilliant. … It’s so good, you won’t believe it,” he said.
He continued, “ABC can put on a production. We go to Antigua. I’ve never been there. I’ve been to islands, but I’ve never been there. But whoever scouted it out and set it up and got things prepared, just the little details, it’s just so good.” He also called the ending the “most dramatic.”
“You won’t believe how we get there, not mechanically, but how we get there emotionally,” he added. “There’s some movement and twists and turns.”
Who was Mel’s ex-wife before Peg on The Golden Bachelor Season 2?
Before The Golden Bachelor Season 2, Mel was married to his “first love” Fabiana Pimentel Owens from 2002 to 2020. Mel and Fabiana welcomed two sons—Lucas, born in 2005, and Andre, born in 2007—and raised their children in California before they filed for divorce from each other in February 2020, citing irreconcilable differences, according to court documents obtained by Us Weekly.
At the time of the divorce filing, Mel and Fabiana agreed on joint custody. Mel and Fabiana finalized their divorce in December 2024 after an almost five-year legal battle. According to the court documents, Mel is 19 years older than Fabiana, which makes her around 47 years old at the time The Golden Bachelor Season 2 premiered.
In an interview with Us Weekly in September 2025, Mel claimed that the reason for his and Fabiana’s divorce was that she had fallen in love with someone else. “Well, it’s never good, right?” he said. “But, you know, I’m never going to get in the way of someone’s happiness. If you want to find somebody else in a different phase in your life — it hurts — but I can’t get in the way of your happiness. And what’s your happiness may not be my happiness. That’d be a real conflict — you can’t stop somebody, say, ‘I’m over here now.’ You can beg and plead, but I’m fine. Life is short, and if you’re in love with somebody else, that’s fine.”
Mel also confirmed to Us Weekly that he heard from his children that Fabiana didn’t plan on watching his Golden Bachelor season. “I don’t know, but my boys told me, like, ‘Oh, she’s not gonna be watching.’ But everybody’s peeking,” he said. “I’d be watching [if it was her]! Everybody’s peeking.”
Host Jesse Palmer also told Us Weekly about what Fabiana and Mel’s sons thought about their dad as the Golden Bachelor in an interview with Us Weekly. “I had a chance to visit with him and his kids yesterday, and it’s really a unique and special bond to watch,” Jesse said. “I think he’s in this unique time now where he can finally focus a little bit more on it himself. His kids are getting ready to go off to college, and I think he really wants to find a special person.”
Who designed Mel’s engagement ring to Peg on The Golden Bachelor Season 2?
Neil Lane, a celebrity jeweler, who has created engagement rings for The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise since 2008, most likely designed Mel’s ring to Peg on The Golden Bachelor Season 2. Ex-host Chris Harrison told Entertainment Weekly in 2016 that engaged Bachelor Nation couples need to stay together for a set amount of time after their engagements to keep their free engagement ring from Lane. If they break up before that time, they must return it. “There’s some rule, after a certain number of years, you get to keep it anyway,” he said. “But after months… it goes back.”
Lane also told StyleCaster in 2016 that he doesn’t know where failed engagement rings go, but he makes each one with the intention that the couple stays together. “I make rings hoping that people stay together forever, but after they get the ring, I don’t have a say in it, and what happens after that, I don’t know,” he said. “Where the ring goes, I have to say, I don’t really know. I just say it goes to ring heaven.”
Who is Peg, Mel’s Golden Bachelor Season 2 winner?
Read Peg’s full Golden Bachelor Season 2 biography and fun facts ahead:
“Peg’s been through fire, literally. This retired firefighter and bomb tech rose from the flames stronger, sassier, and ready to find a spark that lasts. She’s a proud single mom, having raised her daughter, Dakota, with grit and grace. Peg is a woman of many talents, and while she isn’t afraid to get down and dirty, she’s also a lifelong dancer with a professional dance career as another feather in her cap. She used to perform with the High Rollers, the official senior dance team of the Aces basketball team. When it comes to dating, Peg doesn’t want to be anyone’s “nurse or purse.” She’s looking for the real deal — no dating apps, no drama, just real connection. Let’s see if Peg can light Mel’s fire.
Fun Facts:
• Peg’s favorite form of transportation is her unicycle.
• Peg is so happy bell-bottoms are making a comeback.
• Peg would love to play in the mud with baby elephants.”
Published Date : 2025-10-29 23:00:00
Source : stylecaster.com
