Pascal Ibgui has revealed that he'd ask producers to cast younger women for him if he were to star on Season 2 of The Golden Bachelor.
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Pascal revealed he's "dying" to be the next The Golden Bachelor star -- but he'd have one major request.
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"They will have to lower the age," Pascal, 69, told Us Weekly at The Golden Bachelorette: The Men Tell All taping.
"The age [has] got to be lower. Yes, I'm old, but I don't go out with a 72-year-old woman."
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Although he owns a beauty salon in Chicago, IL, Pascal confirmed that he'd definitely be able to step away from his job in order to film The Golden Bachelor next year, if ABC offers him the opportunity.
"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.
Pascal, however, noted how he'd also love to see some of his The Golden Bachelorette friends follow in Gerry Turner's footsteps and take on the leading man role for 2025.
"I know some of them are dying to be the Bachelor. I mean I'm dying for it," Pascal shared.
"If I know what time of commitment and what is involved and if it fits my schedule, yes, why not?"
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But Pascal recently insisted to Glamour magazine that The Golden Bachelor franchise won't succeed in cultivating long-lasting relationships unless producers change the format.
"I think the concept of The Golden Bachelor needs to be modified to a way where they could accommodate the older generation like myself," Pascal said.
Pascal, who quit Joan Vassos' The Golden Bachelorette season, pitched the idea of producers casting senior men and women from the same region, which would result in The Golden Bachelor franchise having a central filming location every season.
"They should do The Golden Bachelor of Chicago, The Golden Bachelor of New York, The Golden Bachelor of L.A., The Golden Bachelor of Miami," Pascal suggested, stealing a page out of The Real Housewives and Married at First Sight playbook.
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When Pascal broke up with Joan during their Fantasy Suite date in Tahiti, he claimed that he wasn't falling in love with the blonde beauty -- like Chock Chapple and Guy Gansert definitely were -- and that he was missing a romantic "spark" with her.
But Pascal was also apparently worried about the fact, if he and Joan ended up together, they'd have to navigate a long-distance relationship after the show.
"That's the biggest challenge I had with Joan. I didn't want to invest because I want a partner on a daily basis," Pascal admitted.
While Joan -- who is settled in Maryland surrounded by her family -- has made it clear she's totally fine with flying on a plane to spend time with her eventual The Golden Bachelorette winner, Pascal isn't willing to complicate his life.
"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 to L.A., I'm going to move to New Orleans, and we're going to make a living together,'" Pascal vented, seemingly taking a shot at the younger generation of Bachelor and Bachelorette leads.
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"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 pointed out how Chicago has 13 million people and so The Golden Bachelor franchise should be able to find plenty of applicants in one state at a time.
"You tell me you can't find 25 widowed or divorced people in that age group?" Pascal questioned.
"Because in my age, I want to wake up with somebody, I want go to bed with somebody. I want to take a walk with somebody. I don't want to get in a plane to go see somebody every two weeks."
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Pascal therefore said a format change would probably help to roll out more happy The Golden Bachelor couples and marriages in the future.
"To me, if I meet somebody who lives in [another suburb of Chicago], okay then," Pascal noted.
"We could go spend every weekend together. We could spend couple nights a week together. But if you live in Washington DC, when am I going to see you?"
The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner and his winner, Theresa Nist, were shown getting engaged during the show's November 2023 finale, and then they got married in January 2024.
The pair, however, announced their split and decision to divorce in April, claiming distance was the main issue because neither of them wanted to leave their loved ones behind.
Gerry is a retired Iowa native who owns a house on a lake in Indiana, and Theresa continues to work a job in finance in her native New Jersey.
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Theresa therefore gushed on "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" about how it would be "an outstanding idea" for The Golden Bachelor franchise to cast regionally.
"I think that's what they should do... especially for people who are older, who have grandchildren and are established in their communities and they have home. [Moving] is really a difficult ask," Theresa explained.
Theresa said she "applauded Joan for addressing that issue immediately" with her The Golden Bachelorette bachelors.
Although distance wasn't the only factor in Theresa and Gerry's split, the mother and grandmother said she and Gerry "probably" would've had "a better chance" of staying together had they lived in the same state when they first met.
Gerry and Theresa's divorce was finalized in June.
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