Mel Owens met his perfect match in Peg Munson on The Golden Bachelor, and promised he’d commit to their relationship during the season 2 finale — even without a proper engagement.
“Look, I had a crush on Peg from the moment that I saw her and that just built over time,” Mel, 66, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, November 13, just one day after the two-hour finale special aired on ABC.
Mel gave Peg, 62, a diamond commitment ring by Neil Lane in the episode’s final moments, and later insisted on After the Final Rose that the couple are happy and in love. As they told Us, they already have big plans for their future together — including holiday adventures.
“Well, we have a lot of plans. We’re going to Vegas this weekend to just chill out and relax at my house. And then after that, we’re going to Michigan,” Peg shared while Mel mentioned an event called the Hob Nobble Gobble taking place on Friday, November 21, in his hometown of Detroit.
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“Then, after that, we’re gonna travel to Toronto and then up to Montreal, where I’ve never been,” Mel added. “So, we’re gonna go there and spend some time in those cities.”
Mel and Peg will then spend Thanksgiving at his friend’s house before attending the “biggest game in college football” together: University of Michigan vs. Ohio State on Saturday, November 29, at Michigan Stadium.
Although Mel is a big football guy — he played at Michigan and in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams — Peg is still learning about the college division.
“I’ve totally been an NFL fan. My dad grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so I grew up watching the Steelers for years. And then, you know, I got on the fire department and that’s all the guys do. So it’s just something that I’ve always done,” she told Us. “Now, I’m gonna learn about college football.”
“She’s picking it up rapidly,” Mel interjected.
After their time in Detroit, the pair plan to spend Christmas in Rio de Janeiro.
“We’re gonna spend three weeks in Rio for Christmas,” Peg said. “Then, we’re gonna come back in February. We’re going to the Super Bowl. So we’ve got a lot of plans.”
Mel noted that Peg skipped one major date: his birthday!
“We’re gonna go back to Vegas for my birthday to see The Wizard of Oz, which is one of my favorite movies, [at the Sphere],” Mel said of his December 7 birthdate.
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Despite not ending the show with an engagement, Mel and Peg are clearly pretty serious about each other. Mel told Us he knew he wouldn’t be comfortable proposing at the end of the process, and that Peg — unlike runner-up Cindy Cullers, who self-eliminated due to his decision — was completely understanding of his feelings.
“[Peg] lives in Las Vegas. I live in Southern California. It’s a 45-minute plane ride. Four-hour drive. So I anticipate [spending] a lot of time together,” Mel told Us. “So the engagement, the marriage, whatever happens, it’s gonna happen down the road. And that’s what I told Cindy. I go, ‘That’s gonna have to develop over time. Not just at the end of the show.’ Because I was with these women face-to-face [for] not even an entire 24 hours. It’s not enough time for me anyway. That’s why Peg and I decided we spend some time together, get to know one another and then whatever happens from there happens from there. And then if it happens, we’ll let everybody know.”
Peg couldn’t agree more.
“I knew how I felt about Mel and I knew that I had strong enough feelings for him, and I knew he had strong enough feelings for me,” she told Us on Thursday. “We just wanted to move forward and we wanted to grow our love story and we wanted to write it the way that we wanted to write it. Not fantasy land or what Bachelor has always done. We just needed to stay true to ourselves.”
The Golden Bachelor is now available to stream on Hulu.
