“BETRAYAL BEFORE THE ROSE”: Mel Owens CONFESSES He Had NO INTENTION of Getting Engaged Days Before the Finale, Leaving Heartbroken Peg Feeling USED, HUMILIATED as Fans ACCUSE Him of Playing With Her Emotions and Wasting Everyone’s Time

Mel Owens is facing questions following the dramatic exit from one woman on The Golden Bachelor.

During the intense confrontation between the pair in the season 2 finale on Nov. 12, Cindy, 60, called the former NFL player, 66, out for misrepresenting his intentions in the relationship.

Earlier in the episode, Cindy left ahead of their overnight date after Mel revealed that he didn’t see himself getting engaged for “two years” — just days before the final rose ceremony.

“I really thought it was you, and I’m just disappointed that you got that far without helping me understand that you weren’t ready for a commitment,” she explained. “Not just me, but all those women that you brought along this journey. When did you know that you weren’t ready for something?”

“I was ready,” Mel replied. “But we had a time there where we were sitting there talking, and it just wasn’t finished. My heart and my head just wasn’t there to give you those answers yet. But we still had the Fantasy Suite, which I guess you weren’t prepared to go into, not just for any intimacy, but just to talk. And that would have given us a lot more time, but that never happened. We didn’t get the extra time to talk behind the scenes, no cameras, no mics, just a talk.”

Cindy and Mel Owens.Disney/John Fleenor

Cindy, seemingly frustrated, noted that she didn’t want to spend the night with Mel when he couldn’t tell her how he felt about their future despite her multiple attempts to get him to open up. He saw things differently.

“What you wanted was a proposal,” Mel stated. “But there’s another person there. You just can’t leapfrog over that person, I say it’s you and it’s over. It wasn’t over. There was someone there. So you have to continue the journey. Like I told you before, it’s gonna take time. Just like the saying, ‘First comes love, then comes marriage,’ right? And then ‘baby carriage’ just won’t happen. But, you know the saying, that’s how it works.”

He added: “We talked about the leap of faith. I don’t operate that way in my life. I don’t go from here to getting married.”

However, Cindy insisted that while she and Mel “weren’t aligned,” she was still surprised that he didn’t tell her more clearly that he was not ready to get engaged before getting to that point in the relationship.

“I was in it for a commitment at the end, and I didn’t feel like I would get it from you,” she told him, going on to highlight that he didn’t seem ready to do that with anyone, whether or not it was her that he chose in the end.

“You wanted the commitment before the process, before the journey,” Mel quipped. “You wanted to do a commitment like we’re going to get married. I wasn’t there. My heart and my head wasn’t there. That’s why you had that extra time in the Fantasy Suite to talk things out. You never got there. You decided to leave and that’s your prerogative.”

Mel Owens and Cindy.Disney/John Fleenor

Calling his feelings for Cindy “straightforward,” Mel reiterated, “I don’t take leaps of faith” like Cindy wanted him to.

“I don’t go from knowing a person to getting married,” he said. “This doesn’t happen in my life, that you wanted to get married without the time in between. This wasn’t me.”

Cindy still insisted Mel wasn’t hearing her concerns: “I’m a very wise woman. I’m not getting married. There was no wedding at the end of this week. There was a hope for a commitment and to take this fairy tale into a happily ever after. That’s what I was looking for.”

“I want you to know I loved you so much, that I want you to be happy with or without me,” Cindy concluded. “I mean that. I really want you to be happy. You’re a great guy.”

The Golden Bachelor is available for streaming on Hulu.