Jason Mesnick tried to explain himself on Tuesday night's After the Final Rose: Part Two. "It was definitely not the classiest thing in the world, but I had to follow my heart," he said of his decision to dump winner (and fiancee) Melissa Rycroft for runner-up Molly Malaney. "Are there things I'd probably do differently? Maybe. But I don't regret where I'm at at all." He said his feelings for Malaney began growing the minute after he sent her home. "I slowly started realizing, 'Oh, my God. It was her,'" he said.
Added Mesnick, "Even though I've had to hurt people in a way, I feel like I did it with integrity."
Added Malaney (who plans to move to Seattle to be with Mesnick): "People are so quick to judge. We are real people who have jobs and families. Luckily I've had Jason to lean on and we are happier than ever." Rycroft did not appear on the show but issued a statement: "I am doing really well. I don't regret anything that happened over the past few months because I know I wouldn't be where I am today had none of it happened." Bachelor host Chris Harrison says on Wednesday's Ellen DeGeneres Show that "Melissa wasn't completely blind-sided" when Mesnick went back to Malaney. "She knew something … she knew something was going on. And she had a hint — a woman's intuitions, whatever — it might have been about Molly." Harrison also said that Malaney is probably aware of Mesnick's fickle ways. Says the host, "Surely, it has to be in the back of her mind."
