The Golden Bachelorette alum Pascal Ibgui has explained what turned him off when he was considering dating The Real Housewives of New York City alum Kelly Bensimon.

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Pascal, 69, and Kelly, 57, talked via Zoom and later met in person for a date, but they never became an item.

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Pascal and Kelly opened up about what went wrong on the Saturday, May 3 episode of the "I Do, Part 2" podcast.

According to Pascal, the pair discussed a potential date location that raised his eyebrows.

"When you said you were going to take me to the Viagra Triangle and we're going to have a burger and beer, and you said, 'You're going to see my... Playboy cover on the wall,' I was kind of a little bit, honestly, I was a little bit turned off."

Pascal was apparently referring to Kelly's March 2010 Playboy cover that is hanging on the wall in restaurant located in that Chicago neighborhood.

"I would have preferred to take you to a Ralph Lauren restaurant, which is a beautiful surrounding, where we could have a nice conversation," Pascal recalled.

Pascal claimed Kelly wanted to go Gibsons in the Viagra Triangle, where "some old guy would pick up a prostitute at the bar."

Kelly admitted that she immediately regretted saying that and was "being a d-ck."

Kelly acknowledged, "There's so many beautiful places, and I really appreciate the Polo Bar. I went there so many times with my parents, and I have the most beautiful memories there, and I really appreciate that."

But Kelly explained how she was "trying to, like, push a little bit" given her history.

"Because in my journey, which you don't know about, but in my personal journey on this podcast, I have been going through therapy, and then having these, whether they're dates, or, you know, just talking on the pod with, you know, my, a lot of my new friends, like whether it's [DeAnna Pappas], Cheryl Burke, Jenna Cramer, and I've been learning a lot," Kelly shared.

"And I am not the kind of person that ever says that, and I don't say that. That's kind of, like, my Housewives personality, and I regret saying it, and I apologize."

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Kelly had starred on Seasons 2 through 4 of The Real Housewives of New York City.

"You don't have to apologize," Pascal noted.

"No, I do," Kelly countered. "I don't have to, but I am."

Pascal accepted Kelly's apology but reiterated how there was no apology needed and people "never stop learning" in life. He applauded her for going to therapy and working on herself.

Pascal went on to explain how he's looking for an authentic and humble woman.

"If I tell you I've been on the cover of hundreds of magazines, it's not something I talk about," Pascal said.

"I just want to know you -- who you are and what makes Kelly, Kelly. And it was, you know, I was a little bit off on that. I called a producer and said, 'I don't know if it's a good match.' She said, 'Give it a chance.'"

Pascal therefore said she gave her a chance and enjoyed meeting her.

"We had so much fun," Kelly said.

"You are a wonderful woman," Pascal assured her, adding how she should be proud of her "accomplishment" of making the cover of Playboy.

"But for me, I didn't feel like you needed to do that."

During the April 8 episode of the "Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous" podcast, Kelly revealed that Pascal had slid into her DMs but she wasn't sure if she wanted to pursue something romantic with him.

"I'm not a zeroing-in-on-somebody kind of person. Let's date before we get married, tread the waters, meet people," she explained at the time.

"I'm a little gun shy, I'm not going to lie. I've had two failed relationships."

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Kelly was married to Gilles Bensimon from 1997 to 2007. She then got engaged to Scott Litner, but the pair broke up in June 2024.

Kelly, however, definitely falls into the age range of women whom Pascal would agree to date.

Pascal shared during a March episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast that he'd prefer to date women between the ages of 55 and 65.

However, Pascal noted it depends on the person because a 65-year-old woman may look great and really take care of herself.

"[She may be] into health and fitness, who knows how to dress," Pascal said, before adding, "I have no problem with the age, but it has to be age-appropriate. So, again, [setting] the record straight. I do not go out with young women."

Pascal was a 69-year-old salon owner from Chicago, IL, when he competed on Joan Vassos' season of The Golden Bachelorette last year.

Pascal enjoyed part an overnight date with Joan in Tahiti, but he claimed he was missing "a spark" with her and didn't feel like he was falling in love with the show's star.

Pascal said he viewed Joan more like a friend, and so he bowed out of the competition before spending the night with her, which may have allowed their connection to develop into something more.

Joan said on the show that she had strong feelings for Pascal and could see a future with him, but she told Katie Couric in an interview that she wasn't exactly shocked by Pascal's choice to leave.

"There were hints before [the Fantasy Suite] that things might not be great," Joan explained.

"At his hometown date, he said, 'I've had some heartbreak in my life, and I just need to move slowly.' It seemed like a little bit of a red flag, but not a final thing -- he was keeping the door open."

Pascal had been in a relationship with a woman he truly loved about a year before his The Golden Bachelorette stint. The couple almost got engaged, but Pascal said they often fought and broke up multiple times, which resulted in him ending the romance for good.

Joan therefore said she actually considered eliminating Pascal after her Final 4 hometown dates with Pascal, Jordan Heller, Charles "Chock" Chapple, and Guy Gansert.

"When I needed to make a decision about the last person I was going to take to Tahiti, it came down to Pascal and Jordan, and Jordan seemed less sure about us," Joan recalled.

"He was fairly certain he wouldn't make it to the place I needed him to be on the last day. So I decided to bring Pascal, knowing that it was a bit of a risk."

Once Pascal left the show and broke Joan's heart in a clearly tense moment, Joan was left crying, feeling "unlovable" and pretty hopeless.

"I thought that I was choosing, and the men were automatically going to like me. I thought it would be way harder for me to have multiple relationships and try to figure out my heart. It shouldn't have been as hard for them, in my mind," Joan confessed to Katie.

"I thought that when I got down to the Final 4, they would want to be with me, and that they would be as far along in their emotions and the journey as I was. I found that they weren't, and that was really shocking."

However, Joan ultimately chose Chock as her winner and the couple is still happily engaged and planning their future together.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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