Mel Owens He only has one more rose to give out in season 2 of The golden bachelor.
The 66-year-old NFL player-turned-lawyer visited the hometowns of his last three… Peg Munson (Las Vegas), Debbie Siebers (Denver) and Cindy Cullers (Austin) — on the Wednesday, October 22 episode of the hit ABC series.
Peg, 62, was the first to board and her daughter, dakotaShe wasn’t afraid to question Mel about her feelings for her mother.
“I’m not in love with your mom yet, because I don’t know if I’m at that stage yet,” Mel began. When asked if she would “get there” with Peg, Mel admitted: “I don’t know.”
Golden Bachelor finalist Debbie Siebers found a one-in-a-million connection with Mel Owens. “Mel is so amazing. I just adore him,” Debbie, 65, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Golden Bachelor Gal Brunch on Thursday, October 16. “We have this really natural, comfortable connection. We’re both from the Midwest, and it seems like […]
Afterwards, Dakota told the cameras: “I’m asking Mel some pretty direct questions, her answers don’t necessarily put me at ease.”
“But if you don’t get to that point with any of these women, are you going to say, ‘Would you still like to go on a date after this?'” he asked Mel before insisting, “The goal at the end of this is that you should get down on one knee and propose to someone.”
“My goal is to find someone, that’s the goal,” he responded. “Whatever that means.”
When Dakota asked again, “Are you really looking for someone?” Mel tried to reassure her: “If I didn’t take it seriously, I wouldn’t be here.”
Mel next traveled to see Debbie in Colorado, and the fitness pro went deeper during his trip to Red Rocks and revealed that his last relationship when he was in his early 50s ended in tragedy.
“I knew he had a little bit of depression, but he was hiding a lot of things from me. After about six months, I started seeing this behavior and it was pretty intense. I had tried to break up with him a couple of times, but I never could because I loved him so much,” Debbie explained to Mel. “It was like I couldn’t live with him and without him. I was completely conflicted.”
Debbie and her then-boyfriend saw her therapist together and she ended up with the professional’s help. “The horrible thing is that he took his own life,” Debbie reminded Mel. “It altered me forever.”
Mel supported Debbie at the time, assuring her that there was no way she could have predicted what happened with her ex.
Mel’s last hometown date was with Cindy, where she met the retired biomedical engineer’s three daughters. While her sons-in-law were more interested in talking college football with Mel, one of Cindy’s daughters followed more the lead of Peg’s daughter Dakota.
“She’s dated and had really great guys, but they’re just not ‘the guy’. It’s very important to her that what comes next is for the rest of her life. Do you see that with my mom? Is that where you guys are in the experience?,” he asked Mel.
“I don’t know. I really like your mom. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks or months or whatever,” Mel confessed. “I’m letting it happen naturally.”
Worried that Mel was being a little “shy” or “insecure” about his future with his mother, she admitted in a confessional: “I don’t think I gave many straight answers. I’m a little worried about the long-term relationship that I know my mother wants.”
Cindy, for her part, was emotional as she informed her daughter about her strong feelings for Mel.
Golden Bachelor star Carol Freeman-Branstine explains why she decided to leave Mel Owens’ season early. “It was a tough decision, it really was,” Carol, 63, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Golden Bachelor Gal Brunch on Thursday, October 16. “I was never really the one leaving, so it was a tough decision.” […]
“I’m not going to talk to you with a big L unless you’re there with me,” he warned.
He later told Mel, “I just want you to know that I’m really falling in love with you and see how you and I can forge something beautiful in the future.”
When it came time for Mel to choose his final two women, he began with a message to the three women.
“When I first spoke to the group about the podcast, I had my own personal mea culpa,” she said at the rose ceremony, referring to comments she made about casting women ages 45 to 60 before the season began airing. “I thought I wanted a certain type of woman and I still do and they are here before me: beautiful, accomplished, brilliant, spiritual. But I have a very, very difficult decision. It is not something I take lightly and I come before you with humility and with an open heart.”
Mel finally gave roses to Peg and Cindy, sending an emotional Debbie home.
“It’s very upsetting, but coming into this I knew it was a possibility. Of course I thought or hoped…” she told Mel through tears.
After Mel assured Debbie that she “touched my heart in more ways than one,” Debbie left Mel one final message: “Take care of those girls, okay?”
The couple kissed goodbye twice before Debbie got into the car.
“I explained myself in such a giant way only to have yet another disappointment,” he said. “It’s beyond painful.”
As Mel’s journey continues with Women Tell All on Wednesday October 29, he’s great Us weekly exclusive information on how to make your final decision, which included making a pros and cons list, in your Us cover story.
“It was difficult and I’m just trying to figure out who will be the best for me, who I would like to enjoy,” he said. Us. “All hometowns are great. But there’s that magnetism that pulls you in that direction no matter what, and it’s a little bit more toward one person than the other, so I went with my gut.”
He added that the ending is emotional and unexpected.
“You won’t believe how we got there, not mechanically, but how we got there emotionally,” he said. “There’s some movement and twists and turns.”
The golden bachelor airs Wednesdays on ABC at 9 pm ET.