We’re less than a week away from Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 hitting the 2025 TV schedule, and there’s both excitement and nervousness surrounding the revamped reality dating spinoff. After a disastrous ninth season and one-year hiatus, changes are coming, including the addition of contestants from The Golden Bachelor. Host Jesse Palmer spoke out again about potential age-gap romances after his and Wells Adams’ previous comments drew backlash from alumni.
Jesse Palmer paid a visit to Live with Kelly and Mark this week, and Kelly Ripa expressed concern about relationships forming between Golden cast members and their younger counterparts. The host confirmed it was an issue that he brought up with the dating show contestants, saying:
This is what I said. I said, ‘Listen, obviously we’ve got two generations sharing the beach at the same time. I can’t tell anybody who you can love and who you can’t love.’ But I encouraged everybody to stay in their generational lane. And above all else, don’t make it weird. Just don’t make it weird. That was the biggest thing.
Jesse Palmer reminded the talk show hosts that the Goldens are “deserving” of another chance at love, too, and he admits he encouraged The Bachelor/Bachelorette alums to get to know them — just not for the purposes of romance. He said:
I was in the young cast’s ear the entire time, explaining to them, ‘You’ve got to pick their brains. They have had so much life, they’ve had so much experience. You need to get into their psyche and learn about things.’
Kelly Ripa wasn’t the only one who was nonplussed with the idea of combining the casts of the two shows. Rachael Kirkconnell said she didn’t think age-gap relationships should be encouraged, while Jade Roper — who met her husband Tanner Courtad on Bachelor in Paradise Season 2 — said she would have been uncomfortable in that situation when she was on the show.
These comments followed Wells Adams (and Jesse Palmer, possibly to a lesser degree) expressing “hope” that there would be some co-mingling between the two age groups. As for whether or not it happened, the host played it coy, saying:
I’m not going to say it didn’t happen. You’re going to have to tune in and watch. But that was kind of how we structured it.
Jesse Palmer may not be willing to reveal what happened on the beach ahead of the Season 10 premiere, but The Golden Bachelorette’s Gary Levingston had no issue saying what didn’t happen. Speaking to the possibility of Goldens dating the 20- and 30-somethings, he said viewers can “rest assured, we’re not going to be dating the younger kids.”
The Bachelor in Paradise discourse over dating age comes at an interesting time for the franchise, as ABC and its Season 2 Golden Bachelor Mel Owens are under fire for viral comments he made on a podcast. In discussing the casting process, the 66-year-old said on the In the Trenches show that he told The Golden Bachelor producers he would eliminate any woman over the age of 60 on his season.
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Seeing as The Golden Bachelor has never had a cast member under 60 (The Golden Bachelorette included one 59-year-old), it’ll be interesting to see how things play out now that the podcast quote has made the rounds.
In the meantime, though, I’ll be tuning in to see our revamped Bachelor in Paradise when Season 10 premieres at 8 p.m. ET Monday, July 7, on ABC and streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.