Peg Munson, a former contestant on The Golden Bachelor, has announced her breakup with Mel Owens, the man whose heart she won on last year’s reality series.

Owens, 67, a former Los Angeles Rams linebacker who played in the 1980s, faced controversy after becoming the star of the show’s 2025 season.

The backlash began before his episodes aired, after he said on a podcast that he was not interested in dating women older than 60, despite being 66 at the time.

Even so, Munson—who was 62 during filming—received the former NFL player’s final rose when the season ended last November.

Almost a year later, she revealed on Instagram Wednesday that she had made “the difficult decision to step away from the relationship.”

Munson, now 63 and a retired Las Vegas firefighter, apologized to fans for not “spoken out sooner,” explaining that “it’s been a really difficult 30 days for me.”

“As a lot of you guys know, I went on The Golden Bachelor hoping to find love, and I did,” Munson said. “For that, I’m grateful.”

Addressing the breakup, she said that “sometimes even when there’s love, it just doesn’t turn out the way we hoped.”

Munson said she is now “focusing on healing my heart” while prioritizing herself, her health and the next chapter of her life. She wished Owens “the best of luck” and said she remained grateful for the experience and the memories they shared.

In her caption, she thanked the public for its “kindness,” adding: “This is not the end of my story. It’s the beginning of a new chapter.”

Munson won last year’s season of The Golden Bachelor after fellow finalist Cindy Angelcyk Cullers ended her relationship with Owens because he was unwilling to propose promptly.

“He’s not interested in making any type of commitments for several years,” Cullers said. “I’m in my golden years. I’m 60 years old, and I’m not interested in being put on hold.”

Owens said he was “shocked” by Cullers’ departure. Soon afterward, he gave Munson his final rose along with a 3.5-carat Neil Lane diamond “commitment ring,” rather than an engagement ring.

The season had already begun amid controversy after Owens said on a podcast that his preferred dating range was “45 to 60, just being honest.”

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Owens recalled telling an executive producer over lunch, “If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them. This is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor,” during an appearance on the MGo Blue podcast.

‘They’ve got to be fit, because I stay in shape and work out and stuff. And I told them to try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs,’ Owens added.

His remarks drew such furious opprobrium on social media that there were ultimately unheeded fan calls for his season to be scuttled altogether.

Owens was previously married to Fabiana Pimentel, 47, from 2002 until 2020 and welcomed two sons into the world with her, Lucas, 21, and Andre, 19.

When The Daily Mail approached Fabiana for comment on Owens being named The Golden Bachelor, she witheringly responded: ‘Good luck. I mean, it’s going to be bad. But anyway, I don’t want to be involved in this.’ 

Munson and Owens’ breakup comes two years after the sensational divorce of another couple from The Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner and Teresa Nist.

Turner proposed to Nist at the end of the reality show’s inaugural season in 2023, only for their marriage to implode three months after they exchanged vows

Last year, Turner drew brickbats from fans over the blistering jibes he took at Nist while promoting his memoir The Golden Years to Us Weekly. 

Turner, who is now engaged to retired teacher Lana Sutton, intimated Nist had not gone on the show for ‘the right reasons.’

When he was asked whether he was nervous of her reading his autobiography, he replied: ‘I’m not worried; I think she should be worried.’ 

He also took issue with Nist for insisting on retaining her finance career, despite having previously told him she was willing to retire for the sake of a relationship.

‘On the show, I asked Theresa if she was ready to quit her job. She said: “When I meet the right guy, I’m ready to end my career.” What I heard was: “There is a woman who’s going to be willing to travel, to have some adventure to do, some things that I consider and that we should consider fun,”‘ said Turner.

‘And then after the show, she always went back to: “Well, I really want to keep working.” And that just pretty much makes it an impossible situation.’

A 26-year-old Jewish man was followed and stabbed by a woman on a crowded Midtown street during Wednesday evening’s rush hour, according to police sources.

The victim, who was wearing traditional Jewish clothing, was walking along Fifth Avenue near West 47th Street in the Diamond District shortly before 6 p.m. when a Russian-speaking woman began following him, the sources said.

Disturbing video shared on X by Manhattan Shomrim appears to show the suspected attacker pursuing the man around a parked car as he tried to get away. Several pedestrians can be seen passing by on the sidewalk.

As he neared a grocery store, the victim felt a sharp, needle-like prick in the lower right side of his back, according to police sources.

He told investigators that he believed he had been stabbed with a syringe. It was not immediately known whether the syringe contained any substance, the sources said.

The man was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was reported to be in stable condition.

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The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the troubling Midtown attack.

Moshe Spern, president of the United Jewish Teachers, sharply criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani over the incident.

“Mayor Mamdani this is on you,” Spern wrote angrily on X Thursday morning. “Another Jew stabbed in broad daylight in Midtown.”

The stabbing occurred just weeks after the NYPD reported that hate crimes had increased by nearly 13% during the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year. Anti-Jewish incidents made up more than half of those cases.

In July, authorities said, a man ranting “Allahu Akbar” stabbed a Jewish man and an Asian man on the Upper West Side.

Prosecutors said a search of the suspect’s phone “revealed text messages containing antisemitic statements.”

A small Georgia town is facing a major leadership shake-up after its entire full-time police department and city manager resigned, officials disclosed during a city council meeting Monday.

Tausha Grose, the city manager of Milner, Georgia, told council members that every full-time police officer had left the department, along with most of its part-time volunteer officers. Grose then announced that she, too, had submitted her resignation.

“It is with extreme sorrow that our entire full-time police department has resigned, along with most of our part-time police officers,” Grose said. “I also filed my resignation with the city clerk today.”

Milner Police Chief Lamar Bunn alleged that city officials secretly installed a tracking device on his truck. He said the tracker was purchased with personal funds and placed on the vehicle without the knowledge of the city council, his supervisor or the city administrator. Bunn also said he was wrongly accused of having an affair with the city manager.

“Every day at City Hall, there’s a tracker on my truck,” Bunn said during the meeting. “It was bought with personal funds and placed on my vehicle without the city council, my supervisor or the city administrator knowing about it.” Despite his concerns, Bunn said he had hoped to find a reason to remain in Milner because of his longstanding ties to Lamar County. “I’ve devoted my life to Lamar County—15 or 16 years with the sheriff’s office, and now I’m back here,” he said. “My dad was policing here in 1974. I have roots here.”

Mayor Craig Timmons acknowledged the officers’ concerns and said he hoped the dispute could be resolved. City officials and the police department had previously clashed over overtime and a proposal that would have prohibited officers from using city vehicles for outside part-time work, but those issues were not identified as the direct cause of the resignations.

In resignation letters obtained by News Media, Bunn said his decision followed ongoing disagreements with city leadership over legal and ethical matters.

“I have determined that stepping down at this time is in my best interest because of fundamental differences involving leadership, governance and ethical alignment,” Bunn wrote. “Recent actions and decisions by city leadership—particularly those involving legal compliance, ethical standards and core values—have compromised my ability to carry out my duties with integrity.”

Other full-time department employees expressed similar concerns. In his own resignation letter, Milner Police Captain Craig Walton called for an investigation into Timmons.

“I sincerely hope Milner residents and City Council members will take these concerns seriously and pursue an independent investigation into the mayor’s conduct,” Walton wrote, including any possible violations of his oath of office or the rights of city employees.

Several other police employees likewise cited conflicts with the mayor and city council when explaining their resignations.

News Media contacted Timmons for comment.

Meghan and Harry’s warm reception in Nottingham showed that the couple still have significant support in Britain, according to an ally of the Duchess of Sussex in the United States.

American commentator Sunny Hostin drew attention to the women of colour who came out to greet and embrace the former Suits actress during her first public engagement in the UK.

Hostin, who has previously said Meghan experienced “abject racism” in Britain, praised the welcome the Sussexes received during their unofficial royal engagements in the East Midlands.

She described the reception as a step in the right direction after years of criticism directed at Meghan following Megxit.

“I was really pleased with the reception that they received when they went to Nottingham,” Hostin said. “You had women of colour just hugging Meghan and welcoming her back when she had received so much bad press.”

She added: “I think this is actually a step in the right direction.”

The US presenter said the couple’s return could benefit them while also giving Harry a chance to move closer to his wider family.

“A first step is that they’ve moved back to the UK. Now his children and their children will get the opportunity to be closer to family. They’ll get the opportunity to be closer to the culture. He said that’s something that they wanted,” she said.

Following Harry’s comments to GQ that he hoped to reconcile with his family, Hostin said: “I suspect one of the reasons why he is publicly saying that he wants to reconcile is so that they hear it.”

“I hope they do work it out because the world feels like it’s on fire. And what better time to be able to cleave to your family and your loved ones than now?” she added.

Recent YouGov polling puts Prince Harry’s favourability among the British public at 33 per cent, while Meghan’s stands at 22 per cent.

In an interview with GQ published on Tuesday, Harry said he had not given up hope of reconciling with his brother and father.

“I want it to work out. Of course I do,” he said, while suggesting that “some people don’t want it to work out”.

The prince called reconciliation “the key point” amid turmoil around the world and admitted that he “grieves” the loss of his relationship with William.

His comments, which did not include an apology to his family, came a week after the Sussexes made their first public appearance together in the UK.

The Duke of Sussex repeatedly placed a protective arm around his wife as crowds cheered the couple and stopped to take selfies.

Meghan kissed one well-wisher and hugged several others.

When a supporter welcomed her back to the UK, Meghan smiled and replied: ‘It’s wonderful to be back.’

Their royal-style charity engagements in the East Midlands, just six weeks after returning to live in Britain, came after the King described the Sussexes as ‘private citizens’.

Critics have called the visits, organised by Team Sussex, a ‘cynical’ attempt to return to royal duties ‘by stealth’.

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The View co-host Ana Navarro said Harry had been told to stop airing his family grievances in public and must privately call his estranged brother Prince William if he genuinely wants to repair their shattered relationship.

She said any meaningful attempt to rebuild trust needed to happen behind closed doors.

‘I think that a lot of the problem has been exacerbated by the fact that it’s been played out in public,’ she explained. ‘So much of the dirty laundry has been aired out in public. And surely they have relatives in common, friends in common.’

She suggested Harry could achieve far more by communicating directly with William rather than repeatedly discussing their estrangement in the media.

‘I just think that if he delivered that message privately right now it might go further than continuing to do it publicly because there’s been a breach of trust and there’s been a lot of hurt, I think, on both sides.’

Ms Navarro then took aim at the very public nature of Harry’s complaints about the monarchy, including the lucrative media projects that have exposed some of the Royal Family’s most intimate disagreements.

‘It needs to be dealt with privately, not with interviews and tell-all books and selling documentaries and things like that,’ she declared.

‘You know, at some point he’s going to need to pick up the phone or go see his brother and have it out.’

Whoopi Goldberg, who knows Harry personally, said she hopes the brothers can eventually resolve their differences.

She went further, predicting that they would ultimately find common ground.

‘I don’t know that this particular interview will help mend fences. But I do believe he would like to,’ Goldberg said.

Fellow panellist Alyssa Farah Griffin suggested King Charles’s health could be weighing on Harry’s mind, particularly as the family confronts the passage of time.

‘We have limited time with our loved ones on Earth,’ she observed, suggesting Harry might be realising that ‘time is the one commodity we can never get back’.

Sara Haines also appealed for reconciliation during the talk show discussion, invoking the brothers’ late mother, Princess Diana, and the extraordinary bond her sons shared during their childhood.

‘That love of their mother was shared only between those two boys,’ she said, adding that she hoped to see ‘a peaceful reconciliation at some point’.

The royal brothers’ bitter estrangement has dominated headlines for years, particularly since Harry and Meghan’s bombshell 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

During the interview, Meghan alleged that an unnamed member of the Royal Family had raised concerns about the skin colour of their son Archie before his birth.

She also revealed that she had experienced suicidal thoughts while struggling with life inside the monarchy.

Further revelations followed in the Sussexes’ 2022 Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, before Harry unleashed another series of extraordinary allegations in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

In the book, Harry described William as his ‘archnemesis’ and alleged that his older brother had physically attacked him during a heated confrontation.

Those claims thrust the brothers’ private tensions further into the international spotlight and intensified speculation over whether their relationship could ever recover.

A disturbing video appears to show a 32-year-old man attempting to abduct a 13-year-old girl in Miramar, Florida, after allegedly asking her to “give him some kisses.”

The girl was outside a Miramar gas station Monday when she was approached by a stranger wearing a bright orange bicycle helmet. The man reportedly put his arm around her shoulders and began leading her away.

She managed to slip beneath his arm and escape, according to video reviewed by NBC6. As the man abandoned the pursuit, he threw a bright pink headband, which the girl briefly stopped to retrieve.

The visibly upset girl then ran into the gas station seeking help. Police later arrested Michael Polanco, a convicted felon whose criminal record includes an indecent-exposure conviction.

A witness told investigators that Polanco directed “provocative sexual and explicit comments” at the girl, according to a police report obtained by the Miami Herald.

Dispatch audio obtained by WSVN also indicates that Polanco told the girl “to give him some kisses.”

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Police arrested Polanco late Monday after responding to a separate disturbance, NBC reported. Authorities did not provide additional details about that incident.

Polanco faces charges including causing bodily harm, kidnapping and terrorizing the girl.

“We’re glad he was captured before he was able to do something much more sinister,” Miramar Police Chief Delrish Moss said, describing the incident as “deeply disturbing.”

Polanco, who has prior convictions for robbery and trespassing, was denied bond Tuesday.

He is prohibited from possessing firearms and has been ordered to stay away from the gas station.

A teacher wounded in last Thursday’s school shooting in Bend, Oregon, said she tried to close a classroom door before pretending to be dead in hopes the gunman would not shoot her again.

Becky Drury shared her account in a statement released Wednesday, the same day the Bend Police Department said the firearm used in the attack at Silver Rail Elementary was “purchased legally.” The shooting left three children and one teacher dead.

“Here is what I remember: Once I realized something was happening outside, I ran to see what was going on. I then saw the shooter and immediately ran back into the classroom. I turned to shut the door behind me, but the shooter was already there. Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground,” Drury said.

“Lying on the floor, I saw that my left hand was almost completely severed from the gunshot, and my other arm was also severely injured. I could not get up, defend myself, or protect anyone else,” she said. “So, I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope he would not shoot me again.”

Drury described the events inside the classroom as “unimaginable” and said her heart was broken for everyone affected. Her thoughts, she added, were with those injured, those who died, their families, the school and the broader Bend community.

The Bend Police Department said Wednesday that detectives remain engaged in a “complex investigation.”

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“They have served search warrants at the shooting suspect’s home, as well as on his electronic devices and his social media accounts on a variety of platforms. That work continues, and it takes time,” the department said in a statement.

Police said the 16-year-old shooter was “neutralized” by a good Samaritan.

Bend-La Pine Schools began bringing students back to its other schools Wednesday, following the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary.

“Heartfelt artwork and messages of love reminded our students and staff that they are surrounded by a community that cares deeply for them,” the school district said.