Golden Bachelor winner Peg Munson is shedding some light on what Bachelor Nation may not know about her boyfriend and season 2 lead, Mel Owens.
“Nobody knows a lot of things about Mel and that’s why I say you guys gotta have him on,” Peg, 62, told the “She’s All Bach” podcast on Monday, December 8. “He donated his pay to the Detroit, Michigan Youth Football team. So his pay that he got for being the Golden Bachelor, he donated that. And a lot of people don’t know that about him either, so there’s a lot more to him that everybody … they don’t know.”
Mel — a former NFL linebacker turned attorney working in sports law and disability advocacy — chose Peg and gave her a Neil Lane diamond promise ring during the Golden Bachelor finale last month. (His runner-up, Cindy Angelcyk Cullers, left the show ahead of fantasy suites after learning Mel wasn’t ready for an engagement.)
Peg further discussed her relationship with Mel, 67, on the podcast, saying he had let her know on their fantasy suite date night that there would be no proposal during the finale of the show.
“[Mel] has a lot of integrity, and so in his heart, he’s like, ‘How can I get down on one knee and propose to somebody that I barely even know?!’” Peg recalled. “And I respect that, I really do! Because I don’t want the fantasy relationship, not at 62 years old. I want the sustainable relationship.”
Peg noted that her goal was for them to grow their relationship over time and make sure it was the real deal before committing to marriage.
“I’ve learned all these things by dating and being married and going through divorces,” she explained. “It’s like, ‘OK, let me look at what works and what doesn’t work in my life.’ And when we were in the fantasy suite, we were able to really talk that out, and we were on the same page. I was like, ‘I am not interested, really, in getting engaged.’ And he said, ‘Good, me neither!’ I said, ‘I want to get to know you.’”
She also shared that the couple did not have sex during their overnight date — despite what viewers may have thought.
“He was so respectful and he didn’t even go there even a little bit. All we did was talk for 12 hours,” Peg said, before reiterating, “We did not [have sex], no. No intimacy whatsoever. He really wanted to get to know me, and he didn’t even try.”
The retired Las Vegas firefighter and bomb tech added, “For me, I wouldn’t have had physical intimacy [that night]. Because what happens for women — and I believe this — is that it clouds our judgement. Once we open up our hearts, it clouds our judgement to what’s good for us. Men are different; they can be intimate and it’s no big deal. We’re intimate, and it’s like, ‘Oh s***, it’s all over!’ So, no, I was not going to do that.”
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly following the finale last month, Mel said he tried to respect all the women who were a part of his season.
“Not one woman told me that I disrespected them and misled them or misrepresented anything,” Mel told Us. “And, you know, maybe TV fans don’t like the sincerity or straightforwardness, but that’s what I have and that’s what I gave them. If I didn’t love them, I’m not gonna tell them.”
He added, “I’ve seen The Bachelor enough where the person told the other contestants or the other people that, ‘I love you. I love you. I love you.’ So you got three ‘I love yous’ out there and they’re all misled. And then there’s panic and heartbreak. I didn’t do that because that’s not who I am. I’d never do it outside of the show and I wouldn’t do it inside of this show. I just stay true to myself and that’s what happened.”
Since season 2 wrapped, Mel and Peg have been enjoying time together and recently celebrated Mel’s birthday in Las Vegas where they enjoyed The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere.
“Final rose may be wrapped, but I still get to keep the guy. 😉🌹,” Peg wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, December 10. “The best part of the Golden Bachelor wasn’t the cameras… it was him. 💛.”
