The Golden Bachelor star Mel Owens has addressed rumors ABC was thinking about replacing him as the Season 2 lead after his controversial age comments.
After Mel sparked backlash for saying he'd cut women over the age of 60 on his The Golden Bachelor season, a claim was widely reported that ABC had fired the former NFL player-turned-lawyer and planned to replace him.
"My friend who I went to school with told me [about the replacement rumor]. She was my conduit to that world," Mel told Glamour in a recent interview.
When asked if he thought the rumor was true when he first heard it, Mel replied, "No."
Mel went on to recall, "When people said to me, 'Hey, are you getting replaced?' I go, 'Not that I know of.' And I wasn't, again, actively searching frenetically, like, 'Oh my gosh, what's going on?'"
Mel admitted of his The Golden Bachelor cast during a June appearance on the "MGoBlue" podcast, "I said [to an executive producer], 'You know, if they're 60 or over, I'm cutting them.'"
Bachelor Nation expressed outrage and disgust over Mel's "ageist" and "superficial" remarks on social media, prompting speculation ABC may replace Mel as the show's lead.
In early July, Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone had claimed Mel was "out" as The Golden Bachelor star "due to recent negative publicity" and fans could "expect an announcement" about his replacement soon.
But one day later, Carbone backtracked and called the situation "fluid." Carbone added that he wasn't sure if anything had truly been decided yet about whether ABC would move forward with Mel.
Although Mel is only a few weeks into filming The Golden Bachelor's second season, he admitted he would've been upset if he lost out on the opportunity to do the show.
"Yeah, looking back on it and looking forward, it's a great experience," Mel told Glamour.
"It's such a great experience for me, so, yeah, I wouldn't have wanted to be recast. But I'm going to earn it back."
Mel also insisted that the "brilliant" women on his season changed him quickly.
"Right now, I'm in it. I was telling one of the producers, 'I just can't wait to tell my friends what an impact this had on me. I know it's going to be huge,'" Mel recalled.
"I don't know [in what ways] yet. I just know from my experience -- because I've done some interesting things, and I know those impact me -- and this is going to impact me in a huge way."
Many Bachelor Nation fans, however, have vowed not to watch Mel's The Golden Bachelor season.
Many people still seem to believe that Mel doesn't appreciate women over a certain age or that he was going to be disingenuous while filming the show to rehab his image.
"Well, if you don't tune in, you'll never know. So you've got to tune in," Mel said.
"And again, I'm trying to earn it back. Watch the show and see if I earn it back. Because I apologized [on Night 1]. You have to be earnest in your work to get the trust back. Everybody there is smart, and they can see through you if you're lying or you don't mean what you say."
