Pascal Ibgui Would Reduce Contestant Age Limit as The Golden Bachelor

Pascal Ibgui is crossing his fingers in hopes of becoming the next Golden Bachelor, but he has a few requests if he is chosen as the season 2 lead.

“They will have to lower the age,” the Golden Bachelorette alum, 69, told Us Weekly in a story published on Thursday, November 7. “The age [has] got to be lower. Yes, I’m old, but I don’t go out with a 72-year-old woman.”

Not only does Pascal have a critique about The Golden Bachelor contestant age range, but he also thinks the franchise should take a page out of Love Is Blind’s playbook.

“I think the concept of The Golden Bachelor needs to be modified and make it The Golden Bachelor of Chicago, The Golden Bachelor of New York, Golden Bachelor of L.A., Golden Bachelor of Miami, of Dallas,” he told the outlet later in the interview. “[In] Chicago, you get 15 million people between the surrounding area and suburb. You can’t tell me you can’t find 25 widows or divorcees.”

Although Pascal clearly doesn’t fully approve of the current production strategy of The Golden Bachelor franchise, the salon owner is “dying” to become the next Golden Bachelor.

“I’m semi-retired, so I have a lot of time. I don’t have to be at work, but I want to see how much involvement there is into it,” Pascal explained of the time commitment to the role.

He later admitted, “I know some of them are dying to be the Bachelor. I mean I’m dying for it. If I know what time of commitment and what is involved and if it fits my schedule, yes, why not?”

Pascal echoed his voice of concern about casting from different states during an October 30 interview with Glamour, using Bachelor Nation’s Joey Graziadei and Kelsey Anderson as an example.

“I said from the beginning, if you take a 25 to 30-year-old kid who doesn’t have a pot to pee on, doesn’t own a car, who are in between jobs, who rent an apartment, who’s looking for an identity … it’s easy to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to move L.A. I’m going to move to New Orleans, and we’re going to make a living together,’” he explained to the publication. “But when you are like me, established, I have a business, I have real estate, I have my friends, I have my routine, I have my health club, I have my connection … I ain’t going to move anywhere.”

Pascal made it to fantasy suites during Joan Vassos’ season of The Golden Bachelorette. However, his reservations about the relationship hindered his ability to progress further and self eliminated before spending a one-on-one sleepover with Joan, 61.

The couple reunited during the Men Tell All episode on November 6, and they addressed their unfinished business. Pascal joined Jesse Palmer on stage first, and watched a montage of his journey alongside the audience.

“It was really difficult for me to say goodbye. I hope I didn’t hurt her. That was not my intention,” he confessed. “She is a wonderful woman. Now I’m watching and I see her saying she’s not worthy of love — she’s totally wrong. I think she is worthy of love, I just wasn’t able to give her what she was looking for at the time. I was too guarded.”

Joan, for her part, said that she felt Pascal’s uncomfortability during their Tahitian bonding ceremony, but thought they could’ve “figured out something in either direction” during fantasy suites.

“But you had already made up your mind,” the Golden Bachelor alum told Pascal. “You were very kind and I just want the best for you. I want you to be happy.”