‘The Golden Bachelor’ Cast is Bringing Age-Gap Drama to ‘Bachelor in Paradise’—But Where Are They?
Plus, details on the latest scandalous season of ‘The Golden Bachelor’
Season 10 of Bachelor in Paradise kicked off last night, and fans were super excited to tune in and see what drama would ensue. But as they did, members of Bachelor Nation began to notice one major thing: the cast of The Golden Bachelor was missing, even though all of the promos had shown them on the beach trying to find love. So, where exactly were the ‘Goldens’, and when can we expect them to show up? We investigate below!
Why ‘The Golden Bachelor’ cast skipped the ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ premiere
During Monday night’s Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 premiere, several past contestants fled to the show’s new location of Costa Rica in the hopes of finding love. But the men and women began to head down to the beach, several of the season’s promised contestants were missing.
This included April Kirkwood, Charles “CK” King, Gary Levingston, Jack Lencioni, Kathy Swarts, Keith Gordon, Kim Buike, Leslie Fhima, Natascha Hardee and Ralph “RJ” Johnson—all of whom were contestants on Season 1 of either The Golden Bachelor or The Golden Bachelorette.
Host Jesse Palmer sat down with Swoon to explain why: the Goldens won’t show up until Week 3, which will air on July 21. He also shared that while he “can’t speak too much” as to why the decision to delay their arrival was made, the Goldens will have a “grand entrance.”
Will ‘Golden’ cast members date the younger contestants?
“I’m happy we gave them their stage and their moment to kind of do that,” Palmer told Swoon before discussing if some of the Goldens would ever be seen pursuing the younger contestants. “I do think part of the structure of Paradise was to encourage both generations to stay in their respective generational lane when it comes to dating. Essentially, what I encouraged everyone to do was not to make it weird.
“I’m in a situation where I’m never gonna tell somebody who you’re allowed to love and who you’re not allowed to love or fall in love with, but there’s an encouragement to keep it over here. And you’ll see, I think the structure throughout the season, it’s sort of set that way. I imagine them arriving when they did kind of allowed relationships to start forming with the younger cast, and when the Goldens arrived, they could focus on each other.”
As of publication, it is believed that upon the Goldens’ arrival, they will be treated exactly the same as the younger contestants. This includes going on dates, standing (or sitting) through rose ceremonies and leaning on everyone’s favorite bartender, Wells Adams, for advice.
Adams recently sat down with Us Weekly to discuss his thoughts on the Goldens joining Bachelor in Paradise and even teased that there is an age gap makeout session expected to air at some point in the season.
“I keep saying this— if the show is supposed to be, like, a televised singles retreat, I don’t think singles retreats say you can only be a certain age,” he told the outlet. “I assume when you go to some weird Sandals in, like, Punta Cana, that old people and young people can all be in the same place. That’s what this was.”
His new bartender partner in crime, Hannah Brown, added onto that, telling US Weekly, “The Goldens don’t care—they’re just so excited to have this opportunity. They just let loose, they say what they want to say in a way that I love. I feel like it gets the younger cast out of their head because the Goldens are living life right. I was supposed to be giving advice, but I was asking them for all the advice.”
‘The Golden Bachelor’ Season 2 & and the over-60 drama!
Along with the Goldens’ Paradise debut, ABC is also gearing up to launch Season 2 of The Golden Bachelor. It will star a former NFL player turned lawyer named Mel Owens, 66, who recently made headlines for saying that he wouldn’t date anyone over 60.
“They [the studio] ask me, ‘What’s your preference?’ So I just said [ages] 45 to 60, just being honest,” Owens said on the MGoBlue Podcast with Jon Jansen in June. “And then we had lunch with the executive producer. I said, ‘You know, if they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.’”
Since then, ABC hasn’t commented on whether they will continue with Owen’s season, but multiple outlets—including Reality Steve—have reported that he has been fired. The season is expected to air sometime in fall 2025.
Be sure to tune into Season 10 of Bachelor in Paradise every Monday at 8 p.m. EST on ABC or stream it the next day on Hulu.
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