Will Matt James’ mom receive the final rose on The Golden Bachelor? Tyler Cameron thinks she just might.
“Patty’s my dark horse,” Cameron, 30 — who has been close friends with James, 31, for years — shared on the Sunday, September 24, episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “I think she’s going to go far in it.”
Patty and 21 other women will be vying for the eye of Gerry Turner, 72, the first lead of ABC’s senior spinoff show. He’s embarking on his journey to find love again following the death of his wife in 2017. Patty, for her part, was previously married to Matt’s estranged father, Manny James. The pair split while Matt was a child.
In fact, Cameron joked, 70-year-old Patty “might be a little too much for Gerry to handle,” he quipped. “Hopefully he’s got his pacemaker in, he’ll be alright.”
He concluded: “I think Patty’s going to do well. I just told her to be her, have fun and she’s gonna do great.”
Cameron previously shared his hilarious reaction to Patty’s casting on his Instagram Story in August. He reposted a picture of her posing with the other contestants from her account and wrote, “Looking fine as frog hairs.”
Fans met Cameron in 2019 when he was a contestant on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette. Matt, for his part, was originally cast on Clare Crawley’s season in 2020, but filming was delayed due to COVID-19 and he was instead slated to be the next Bachelor.
It was on his season where he met Rachael Kirkconnell, with whom he ended the show and is still dating, having weathered Kirkconnell’s past racism scandal and a breakup.
Prior to Patty being announced as a contestant on the show, Matt and Kirkconnell, 26, exclusively told Us Weekly in July that they were cheering Patty on in life — with or without a stint in Bachelor Nation.
“I’m rooting for love [for Patty] any day, whether it’s on TV or off,” Kirkconnell gushed, while Matt added that “just wants Mom to be happy.”
The Golden Bachelor premieres Thursday, September 28, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
