**Bachelors Stick Up for Each Other: Gerry Turner Weighs In on Mel Owens’ Controversial Comments**

Gerry Turner, the first “Golden Bachelor,” recently shared his thoughts on his Season 2 successor Mel Owens’ controversial remarks.

“Well, I don’t really know what to think about it,” Turner told The Post exclusively. “I feel like he’s done a great job of reestablishing what his true opinion is. I think perhaps that his comments could have been taken a bit out of context.”

Owens, 66, faced backlash before his season premiered after he said he wouldn’t date women over 60. “If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them. This is not ‘The Silver Bachelor,’ this is ‘The Golden Bachelor,’” the Season 2 star stated in June.

A former Los Angeles Rams player from 1981 to 1989, Owens added that the women had “to be fit, because I’m staying in shape and work out and stuff. And I told them [to] try and stay away from artificial hips and the wigs.”

His comments quickly sparked criticism online. One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “He doesn’t seem like the type for ‘in sickness and in health.’” Another added, “Awful. I won’t watch with a jerk in the lead.” A third user commented, “Sounds like a real winner. Shocking ABC doesn’t care that they’re going to make women fight over a shallow sexist jerk.”

In response, Owens told Fox News Digital, “I apologized when I met the women on the first night,” and emphasized, “there’s no age to love.” He explained that his earlier remarks were “unfair, and I apologized and went forward and asked them to let me earn it back and, hopefully, I did on the season.”

Turner, who starred in Season 1 of “The Golden Bachelor,” told The Post, “Maybe he was judged a bit too harshly about what he had to say. I think his actions on the show are a far more important indicator of who he is as a person.”

However, Turner admitted he hadn’t watched more than “the first episode” of Season 2 due to recent travel. “I have the other episodes recorded, but I haven’t been home to watch them. It is on my to-do list this week with Lana and I, to catch up on that show,” he said, referring to his current fiancée, Lana Sutton.

Turner met Sutton after splitting from his Season 1 choice, Theresa Nist, 72. After marrying during the show, Turner and Nist divorced just three months later.

Reflecting on his own experience, Turner expressed sympathy for Owens dealing with public criticism.

“There were times when it was very difficult. Not only some of the comments directed at me, but also those comments out there that I knew my daughters and granddaughters saw,” he said.

“The general public sometimes can be very cruel in their comments and only know a small portion of the story and give the most negative aspects of the story the most life,” the Indiana-based reality TV star added. “But that’s just kind of the way things are. I think anyone who has some public appearance or public stature has to kind of expect that, to a certain extent.”
https://nypost.com/2025/11/03/entertainment/gerry-turner-defends-mel-owens-over-his-controversial-golden-bachelor-age-limit/