‘Golden Bachelor’ Winner Peg Munson Reveals Mel Owens Surprisingly ‘Donated’ His ’Pay’ From the Show

Mel Owens didn’t keep his Golden Bachelor salary for himself.

On Monday, December 8, this past season’s winner, Peg Munson — who is still dating Owens, 67 — appeared as a guest on the She’s All Bach podcast and revealed the attorney decided to do something charitable with the money he made starring in the hit reality TV show.

“Nobody knows a lot of things about Mel, and that’s why I say you guys gotta have him on,” Munson, 62, remarked. “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.”

The former firefighter went on to note she feels “there’s a lot more” to the retired NFL player than viewers may have realized.

“He’s a cool dude. He’s funny. He talks a lot. He’s a Chatty Cathy, and there’s a lot to him,” she continued. “There really is a lot of layers, but he’s not going to be what everybody wants him to be. He’s going to be authentic to who he is. And if you don’t like it, then that’s their problem. And I think you guys saw a lot of that on our season. He just really stayed steadfast into who he was.”

While Munson did not disclose how much Owens was paid for his season of The Golden Bachelor, it is estimated to be around six figures.

In 2021, The Bachelorette alum Jason Tartick shared that he was offered $100,000 to star as the Bachelor on season 23 of the show on his Trading Secrets podcast, per People. Tartick said that Colton Underwood — who ultimately became the lead that season ‚ was offered the same amount.