‘Bachelor’ star Matt James’ mom Patty is hoping to find love on ‘The Golden Bachelor’
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — ABC’s new senior-focused “Bachelor” franchise spinoff “The Golden Bachelor,” starring 71-year-old Gerry Turner, has a familiar face among its newly announced cast.
On Wednesday, the women of “The Golden Bachelor” were revealed, and former “Bachelor” star Matt James’ mother Patty is among them.
“Patty is ready for her turn to find love,” her official ABC bio reads. “After seeing the process work for her son, Patty is hoping to meet a kind, funny, smart and confident man for herself.”
Viewers first met Patty, a 70-year-old retired real estate professional, during James’ 2021 season when he was cast as the first Black Bachelor following a petition urging ABC to address a lack of diversity on the popular reality show.
“While Patty has been single for almost 30 years, her heart is open,” her bio also reads. “Patty hopes Gerry is as excited about her as she is about him!”
Patty lives in Durham, North Carolina and is mom to Matt and his younger brother John.
“Everything that she sacrificed for myself and my brother to be in the position that we’re at, I want to be that for somebody else,” Matt said in an interview with GMA in 2021, adding that “the way that she loved myself and John is how I want to love somebody and how I want to be loved.”
Patty will be one of 22 women between the ages of 60 and 75 years old who are hoping to form a romantic connection with Turner, a grandfather and retired restaurateur from Indiana. The casts of the original series, which began in 2002, have typically been in their 20s and 30s.
According to an ABC press release, “On this all-new unscripted series, one hopeless romantic is given a second chance at love in the search for a partner with whom to share the sunset years of life.”
Turner previously married his high school sweetheart, Toni, in 1974. They were together for 43 years, and share two daughters, Angie and Jenny, and two granddaughters, Charlee and Payton. Toni died in 2017 and Turner is now ready to find love again, according to his family.
“The Golden Bachelor” will premiere on September 28 on ABC.
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