Warning: Mel and Peg still together from The Golden Bachelor Season 2? There may already be trouble in paradise after the finale.
Peg Munson, a 62-year-old Retired Firefighter and Bomb Tech, was one of two finalists in Mel Owens, a 66-year-old lawyer and a retired NFL linebacker from Laguna Hills, California, eliminated his third-place finalist, Debbie Siebers, a 65-year-old Fitness Professional from Little Chute, Washington, after Hometown Dates.
Related: All the Bachelor couple who’s still together from every season
Peg as one of Mel’s two finalists came as a surprise to Bachelor Nation fans who noted their different personalities from the start. “Mel really is a wet sock.. he has zero personality. he says him and Peg match energies and I am wondering where? how? what? huh?” a user tweeted. Another user wrote, “I feel like Mel is way more into Peg than Peg is into Mel..” One more user tweteed, “Peg seems lovely, but I think she needs someone more adventurous and high energy than Mel the turtle. I don’t think he can keep up with Peg, and she’ll get bored with him.”
While the majority of fans aren’t on board with Mel and Peg’s romance, what does Mel think? Read on for whether Mel and Peg are still together from The Golden Bachelor Season 2 and what happened after the finale.
Mel picked Peg as his winner in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale, and the two got engaged. They’re still together, as of writing.
While Mel and Peg are still together, a source told The Sun in a report published the day of The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale that Mel and Peg already have issues in their relationship due to their different personalities. “Mel and Peg are already having problems. She’s a social butterfly and loves to be extroverted and outgoing,” a production insider said. “He can hang, but he’s much more demure. She’s go, go, go, and he’s calm and slower paced. He prefers nights at home, and she prefers nights on the town.”
The source continued, “They connect over foundational things like family and morals, but personality-wise, they clash, and there’s already been cracks in the relationship.”
The source also claimed that Mel and Peg had a happy couple’s weekend—a secret meeting between the lead and their winner arranged by ABC—scheduled for October 2025 in a “secluded place,” however, the visit never happened. Despite the cancelled happy couple’s weekend, the source reported that Mel and Peg planned to come out as a “united front” at The Golden Bachelor Season 2 “After the Final Rose” special in order to not cause any speculation about the issues of their relationship. “They don’t want the fans to get a whiff of any problems as that will just add to it,” the insider added.
The source also reported that even the crew was surprised that Mel proposed to and picked Peg as his winner, adding that the finale was a “huge relief” to production. “Everyone is thrilled, if not even surprised, behind the scenes,” the source said.
The insider explained that Mel’s behavior at the start of The Golden Bachelor Season 2 led producers to worry that he wouldn’t end up with anyone. “He was more difficult in the beginning, which is why everyone had doubts, but he really did allow himself to be vulnerable to the process,” the insider said. “And because of that, he had a storybook ending, and producers are elated with the outcome.”
The source continued, “Execs were terrified he wouldn’t get down on one knee and convinced throughout most of the season it was looking like he wouldn’t.”
In an interview with Glamour before The Golden Bachelor Season 2 finale, Mel hinted at his happy ending. “I’m always in love,” Mel said when asked if he was in love. “Things have a way of working themselves out. It just does,” he added when asked whether he was happy with his finale. He continued, “You know, I’m happy with the show. But there’s drama, where it could derail, and things can go off the rails.”
While Mel confirmed that he was satisfied with how his Golden Bachelor season ended, he also gave a cryptic quote calling the show a “fantasy.” “It’s always a fantasy. This whole thing’s a fantasy. Right?” he said. “It’s all a fantasy. So then you really get to know each other a lot deeper, and then you can go from there. Some things people just don’t want to say on camera.”
He also confirmed that he didn’t predict either Cindy or Peg being in his final two when he first started filming The Golden Bachelor Season 2.
“Because, you remember, the final two is Cindy and Peg. Cindy was more open, as you can see, during the season,” he said. “And Peg was sort of closed off and really a difficult person to get to know. Cindy’s affectionate and smart. I like Peg because she’s high-energy, but she was really not that affectionate in the beginning. I mean, she’s just really not an affectionate person. I just wanted a little more affection from Peg that I just couldn’t get.”
Peg Munson is a 62-year-old Retired Firefighter and Bomb Tech from Las Vegas, Nevada. Her Instagram handle is @peg__munson. According to her Instagram biography, she also works as a realtor and interior designer specializing in remodels.
Read Peg’s full Golden Bachelor biography and fun facts below:
“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.”
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.’ This is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor.”
He continued, “[The executive producer] goes, ‘But they’re going to be hot, don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it.’ He goes, ‘You can’t use the word cut,’ I go, ‘That’s an NFL term…’ They’ve got to be fit, because I stay in shape and workout and stuff. And I told them to try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs.”
After his interview, Mel faced backlash from Bachelor Nation, with Reality Steve reporting that ABC was considering replacing him as the Golden Bachelor. Mel apologized for his comments in an interview with Glamour in August 2025, in which he recalled a conversation between him and a 65-year-old female friend who called him out.
“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,” he said. “She goes, ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ve said some things that are just incredibly wrong.’ And I go, ‘I’ve got to apologize.'”
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.”
Before he became the Season 2 Golden Bachelor, Mel was a professional football player and linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League. He was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round (ninth overall pick) of the 1981 NFL draft and played nine seasons with the team until his retirement in 1989. Mel signed onto the Los Angeles Rams in 1981 with a contract worth $175,000 per season. He was also named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week by the NFL in 1986.
After his retirement from the NFL, Mel explored several industries before landing his second career as a sports attorney. Following his time with the Los Angeles Rams, Mel launched a clothing line called Evolution Wear, as well as operated a nationwide restaurant reservation hotline called 1-800-LETS-EAT. He also worked as a financial advisor at Merill Lynch & Co. after passing the Series 7 Exam.
His most notable post-NFL job, however, was as a founding partner of the law firm, Namanny, Byrne & Owens, in Laguna Hills, California, where he specialized in sports law, workers’ compensation, sports injuries, and disability benefits. Throughout his career, Mel represented more than 250 football players in workers’ compensation claims caused by football-related injuries. One of his most notable cases was a 2013 brain-injury lawsuit by multiple professional hockey players against the National Hockey League, which he was one of the lead attorneys on.