By Stephanie Giang-Paunon

Copyright foxnews

“The Golden Bachelor” star Mel Owens put more than roses on the table during the show’s premiere. During the Sept. 24 debut, the 66‑year‑old revealed his ex‑wife filed for divorce in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic after falling in love with someone else. “In 2020, during Covid, my Dad died. And then my wife filed for divorce. She had found someone new. I was shocked,” Owens said on the ABC show. “It’s heart-wrenching. I mean, it’s the toughest thing I’ve ever gone through. In the quest for love, along the way, you’re gonna get knocked down even sometimes when it’s unexpected. But you have to get back up and try to find it again. Since the divorce, I haven’t really dated. I had to stay focused on my kids.” ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ STAR MEL OWENS DOES DAMAGE CONTROL AFTER CONTROVERSIAL AGE PREFERENCE COMMENTS Even though his divorce was tough, Owens told Us Weekly, “But, you know, I’m never going to get in the way of someone’s happiness. “If you want to find somebody else in a different phase in your life — it hurts — but I can’t get in the way of your happiness. And what’s your happiness may not be my happiness. “That’d be a real conflict. You can’t stop somebody, say, ‘I’m over here now.’ You can beg and plead, but I’m fine. Life is short, and if you’re in love with somebody else, that’s fine.” Owens and his ex-wife, Fabiana Pimentel, were married for nearly 18 years and share two sons. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Describing how he coped with the emotional split, Owens added, “You live in the moment. Plus, I had kids, so I had to think about them before me. So, that was the main focus. And there were younger kids at the time — not infants, but teenagers. I let things work itself out, and it did. And have patience and understanding.” As for whether his ex-wife will tune in to “The Golden Bachelor,” Owens said, “I don’t know, but my boys told me, like, ‘Oh, she’s not gonna be watching.’ But everybody’s peeking.” ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ MEL OWENS FLIP-FLOPS ON DATING PREFERENCE, NOW SAYS THERE’S ‘NO AGE TO LOVE’ Owens admitted, “I’d be watching [if it was her]! Everybody’s peeking.” During a podcast interview in June, the retired NFL linebacker admitted he requested producers limit his dating pool to women under age 60. “It’s blind up until they get out of the limo. But they asked me, ‘What’s your preferences?’ So, I just said 45 to 60, just being honest,” Owens said on the “In the Trenches” podcast. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER “And then the process went, and I was selected, right? And then we had lunch with the executive producer. I said, ‘You know, if they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.’ ‘Oh Mel, you can’t, you know, this is not the ‘Silver Bachelor.’ It’s the ‘Golden Bachelor.’ He goes, ‘But they’re going to be hot, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it.’” He also said he’d requested the producers avoid casting women with “artificial hips and the wigs.” Owen later explained his controversial comments to Fox News Digital. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I apologized when I met the women on the first night,” he said, admitting it was a misstep. “I had been married for 25 years and all my experiences at that time were just with my wife and the friends that we had. So I hadn’t experienced anybody outside of my wife. But, again, it was unfair, and I apologized and went forward and asked them to let me earn it back and, hopefully, I did on the season.”