At the time, her heart was broken.
But now Melissa Rycroft says being dumped by Jason Mesnick was probably for the best.
"It seems like forever ago. It was forever go," she said on Tuesday's After the Rose special. "What's kind of funny is where I've been, I haven't really brought myself back to that point."
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Asked what she remembers from the March 2 show, she replied, "It's not easy being that person. It's hard to be that person because on one hand, there's the embarrassment factor. The other times that it happened in my life, it was private and I could cope privately. This was very public. Everybody saw the hurt and they saw the crying, but it's definitely been something I've embraced and love, because my friends, family, everybody back home was right there to help me."
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In the end, she said, "I think what everybody just saw was one of the best things that has happened to me in my life."
Asked if Mesnick made the right choice picking Molly Malaney, Rycroft, 26, replied, "Yes. Yes."
Ryroft has since gotten engaged to 28-year-old Dallas insurance agent Tye Strickland.
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"It's funny because it didn't start back up again as a romance," she said of how she became romantically involved with her friend. "He had called me in early January, and during the whole Bachelor hoopla, he really, truly became my best friend, corny as it sounds. That's how that started up again."
After stints on Dancing With the Stars and ABC's Good Morning America, what's next for Rycroft?
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"I have no idea," she said. "I have really learned that the sky's the limit. It's so funny to me. A year ago, I had made this perfect list of everything that I needed when I was 25, and I sat there going, 'I have nothing – none of it.' I was in this really big hole. It's so funny because I think you're given those times in your life so that when things like this happen, you appreciate them so much more."
