This is the most traumatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Hey everybody, Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas. Hope everybody's being safe as a massive hurricane is just made landfall here in Texas, going through Houston and guy's going all the way up to the East coast. So everybody be safe this week with all the crazy weather going on. I'm excited about the show today because someone who was a part of well, you know how I say, used to say, this is
the most dramatic moment ever. Well, this was the most dramatic moment ever. It was Jason Mesnick's season of The Bachelor. It was two thousand and nine and he got engaged to Melissa, and then there was the infamous switch where Jason broke up with Melissa asked Molly out for a date. The rest is Bachelor and history for all of them, because now Jason and Molly are married and Melissa went off to Dance with the Stars, did a bunch of other stuff and is now happily married to her old
boyfriend Tie. They have three kids. But it was a moment, a light bulb moment in the history of the show. And again when I say, well, you know, when people say what was the most dramatic, this was it. So you know, the show had been on for gost two thousand and nine, so we've been on since two thousand and two, so you know, good seven years. This was season thirteen of The Bachelor, which is hard to believe
because it seems so much long longer. But this really blew things up in a way that it's hard to even fathom now because there wasn't social media. There wasn't a lot of what we have now that made things so big. But despite not having social media and despite not having all those avenues to talk about it, it was massive, very controversial and a lot of ways. So the show we're doing today is with Melissa Ryecroft. It's
a conversation I've really never had publicly with her. We've talked, but it's been a while since I've seen her and run into her as she is very busy again a mother of three. But it's a conversation I've wanted to have for a very long time. So I'm so excited to have Melissa Yecraft on the show today because not only were going to talk about Bachelor, bacherette stuff. But she was also a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader just a year
before she came on The Bachelor. She was a Dallas Cowboys surely a very popular one, had been there for two years. And you know the reality show that is blowing things up right now on Netflix. We got to dive into that as well. So so much to talk about with our guest today, Melissa Ryecroft. Melissa, it's so good to see you again. Welcome to the show. I've been I've been waiting for this talk for a long time. Uh oh no, in a good way. I just I just haven't seen you in a while. I mean, obviously
you have been raising three kids. What's what are the what are the ages? Again?
I have a thirteen year old now ten and eight, so in a way in it, but they're getting bigger.
Your oldest is thirteen.
And my young my Caubooz is eight. Like that's really sad to me.
It's wild. So eight is that? Let's see? I said, is it like fourth grade? Third grade? What is that?
Oh, it's been a long time for you, hasn't it.
No? Suse yes, Second, he's going in a second. So he started, Okay, so because I know they start around four or five, depending on old they are. That's kindergarten. Yeah, then first, second, third, Yeah, okay, that has been a look minor, I mean one out of college, one's about
to graduate. And this is crazy, I know, And you know, I was thinking, this is one thing when I when I bring on former constants from the show, that seem and I don't mean this in a bad way because it just ages both of us, but it's to me, it honestly feels like a lifetime ago. But it's also weird because it was season thirteen of The Bachelor, so obviously we'd done it for a while. It was seven years in. But at the same time, at two thousand and nine, man, it feels like a long time ago. Yeah.
I mean I still probably get recognized more for Bachelor, oddly enough than anything else, which you know, and you know, I mean again it's aging. It's this was twenty plus years ago at this point, you know. But yeah, I mean I was twenty three, I think going into or maybe twenty two, twenty three, like just a baby, and people will still come up to me like, oh, you look so better off. I'm like, it's been twenty years. But yes, I mean it was a long time ago.
But when I even see clips online, I'm like, that doesn't even it doesn't look like me, it doesn't sound like me. It's weird to have that part of your life documented, right or everybody?
Yeah, I can't imagine. I mean even when I see pictures of when the show started, and every now and then a clip will come out from the early early days, you know, Alex Michelle or Bob Guiney or Trista, which was you know, five six years before your season. Yeah, it's that time capsule gets dug up and you're like, oh my god, I was are your voice is still high and you know, your cadence was different, and yeah,
I mean you were fresh out of college. I mean you had gone to North Texas, you had danced for the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders for two years, and then you came on.
The Bachelor, and then I came on The Bachelor. Yeah, oddly enough.
And I think I've told you the story that I was going through a breakup with.
My now husband right now with Ti.
Yeah, Hi, Yeah, we.
Had been together for about two years and broke up and I just had a real hard time getting over it had one of my girlfriends who was a cheerleader nominate me.
I don't know how the process is now.
Back in the day, you could go online and just type in I guess somebody.
I'll be honest, I don't think they know how the process is now.
And yeah, it just kind of happened. It was.
Yeah, that was funny. I'm shocked. I think you were the first, maybe in even the only Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. I don't know if we've had more since then, but I'm shocked we didn't have more, because, you know, being from Dallas where I grew up, and I knew some of the people from the Cowboys, and I had met some of the cheerleaders from time to time. I may have even been there while you were. I don't know if I did. Did I ever come in the room or like take pictures, or was on the field.
It all feels a lot. I don't remember. I don't remember the details. I have no idea.
Because I'm a big Cowboy fan and I know the Jones family fairly well, and so from time to time I would come to a game, and every now and then I would go in and meet some of the cheerleaders or take a picture, And I was I wonder if our paths ever came so close to crossing or did cross and we just obviously didn't know each other.
Weird. Yeah, no, I think about that stuff.
But yeah, it was The cheerleaders back then were very different than I mean, we were celebrities in the Dallas world, you know, like coing out to bars and stuff. We were little local celebrities.
I guess. Yeah, now they're bona fide celebrities.
Right, it's gotten so much bigger.
Yeah, it's definitely a different thing. There was a girl, do you remember Jasmine?
Yeah, of course, Yeah, he was.
A DCC and now okay, one of the vander Pump spin off on wrong So yes, there was one other.
I think she was the only one, but there was one more.
So yeah, I was just I mean because as I was looking back this morning, as I was getting ready to talk to you, and I'm like, man, two thousand and nine, and in the lead up and open to this conversation, I said, when people ask me, and I always get asked, you know what is actually the most dramatic moment you've ever been through on the show, Because I say that quite a bit, and I said it over twenty years, but I say it was this moment it was two thousand and nine, now.
Twenty years later, still holds.
The most, still still does. I mean, there were there were crazy moments, you know, whether it was Chad threatening to kill me on the beach in Mexico or you know the Jake Pavelka season that got wild, and you know a lot of things went off the rails and were bad or you know, bad in a good way TV wise, but this moment was And this is what's weird. That's why I wanted to talk to you, because obviously
I've spent time with you and we've chatted before. But I think now that we've had time to kind of really think about this and we've grown up and gotten a little bit more experienced in our lives, it's funny to think back on what an indelible mark this made
on my life. But clearly it was one of the biggest moments of your life and Jason and Molly's course, and to have shared in that is really wild to me because usually, you know, a big moment for somebody like you, you would just tell me about it, but I lived it which was weird, which was so weird. I should not have been there. I shouldn't have been there, you know, Yeah, you shouldn't have be there.
Yeah, it was I imagine for you it was completely awkward. What what I specifically remember is when they would cut to the commercial quote unquote, we're taking a break, and it would just be silence nobody. And now that I've done a few things, but that's not what happened. You cut for commercially, you talk, you joke, you laugh, there was it was silence with everybody for what two or three minutes while we just kind of sat there.
It was.
It was And for those that don't remember, or maybe you haven't been born yet at the time. So on season thirteen to The Bachelor, Jason Mesnik was our bachelor. We get to the end and we are in New Zealand, yeah, and which was beautiful. And so we're in New Zealand and it was pretty close coming to the end, but we kind of knew he was going to choose Melissa, and that's what happened. There was a proposal, It was beautiful,
We had a great time. We pop champagne, We go home. Yeah, we jump in the pool, yeah, we had all these moments and we you know, one of the funny things before I move forward. I don't know if you know this, but the proposal. Maybe this was like an omen Maybe this was God saying guys, don't do this. But right as the proposals about to happen, obviously we know he's about to get down on one knee, the power goes out in the control room. No, just it's never happened before,
it's never happened since. But right, I mean, we have, you know, so just so people know, we're set up, you know in usually houses or resorts or something. So we'll take over a hotel room or maybe someone's bedroom and we turn it into this huge control room. So there's like ten monitors, there's audio behind us, there's you know, there's all this equipment in this room. And it says if someone just flipped one switch and it was just shoom, that was God. That was that was God. That was
God saying, guys, stop this. And so I'll never it because Ken Fuchs, our director, without even blinking an eye, dropped everything threw off his headset, went sprinting, and it was like we're good four hundred yards away sprinting down this hill to get to the mountaintop where you guys were, and he started just running from camera to camera to
make sure everybody was getting the shots. Luckily, you know, the photogs on that show are the best in the world at what they do, and so everybody just kept doing their job and getting their shots of the you know, the isoshot of Melissa, the isoshot of Jason, and the two shots and then the jibs getting these big But we didn't see that proposal. We didn't hear it. We didn't know what we had until we got back home.
So you didn't know. I said, yes, technically.
We did well, we did because we ran down celebrate. Okay, so we get home after that little anecdote, we get home, when did you guys know that things weren't well?
I mean, pretty quick, I'm going to be honest. Once once the relationship turned to strictly phone calls, because back then you didn't have FaceTime, you didn't.
Have Zoom, you didn't you didn't have that.
Phone calls And I think I think what I learned was that the cameras created a protect around us of there's always kind of something fun to talk about you have your best stories, you have your best self, and once that was gone, we didn't have a ton in common.
Right well, and the show facilitates that. And I will say we and as the show got better at facilitating the relationships that we built in the in the early days, and I think you were still considered early days, I would say we didn't do a good job of facilitating relationships. We did a good job at building them. Like you said, we made sure that Melissa and Jason only got to see each other for a short amount of time, so it was always the honeymoon.
Phase, right exactly, exactly, Yeah, And once the honeymoon phase was gone, it was still you know, in my mind, I just thought, we just need to see each other again. This is because you know, I can't when I tell people what this process was like for me, Like I went from going into this a single woman, quote unquote falling in love to what I thought I was falling in love. I left an engaged and I couldn't tell
a soul. I couldn't tell my best friend, I couldn't tell my parents found out because remember they were not even on the show. My parents wouldn't go on the show call them and just say no right and tell them. But I couldn't. I couldn't delve into details of what I was going through, And so I have this roller coaster of emotions and now I've got a relationship that is not even one hundred percent and I can't talk to anybody about it because nobody even knows I'm engaged.
It was a really weird mind place to be in, and so in my mind, I went.
He's back in Seattle with his kid.
He's back in his job with his kid, doing his thing too.
Then you're in Dallas and my little cubicle.
It's like, it's like life, this huge life event happened, and then we separated, pretended it didn't and continued with our lives.
You must have been like, did I did Did any of that even happen?
Mine?
Key?
Am I thing buried?
I mean, it must have just seemed like some weird fever dream it because it's like being shot out of a cannon. Then you're just like, Okay, go back to your life. And again that's where we didn't do a good job back in the day of facilitating those relationships. Yeah, we had those quote unquote happy couple get away weekends, but we didn't do a good job. And like you said, communication was a little more difficult because you just had you just had to have a long distance phone call, and.
You had to be at the same time, you know, it had to be when I was off work and you were off work.
And yeah, but.
Yeah, just I realized pretty quickly personalities were pretty different, interests were pretty different. But I really thought, once this is all over, the show is aired, we can finally.
Be a couple.
We'll be normal again, and it'll be fine. So that's how I went into the after the final Rows, even though no we can talk. You know, they bumped our taping up like a month, and I remember asking, and I was like, why did they bump our after the final rose up? It wasn't supposed to tape until like end of February, right, Oh that's.
Right, that's right, And we did it right after Christmas, yes.
And I was told, oh, it has to do with Bachelorette taping. I'm like, okay. I remember talking to Jason. I was like, do you know why they're doing this?
And he goes, no, I have no clue.
So yeah, I remember from the other side, I can tell you. I got a phone call. I might have even been like Christmas Eve. It was. I know it was right around Christmas because I remember I was with my family. I was on vacation, and they said, you know, I don't know anything yet, but things aren't looking good
with Jason and Melissa. And they said, you know, we're going back and forth, but just be prepared because why the reason they called in the middle of Christmas week is where are you going to be right after New Year January? Yeah, just in case. And I was like, well, I mean I don't know. I'm like, I can you know, it's my job. I'll be available, and they said, okay, we'll keep you post. And it wasn't a week later that they called and said we are shooting something around
January seventh, whatever it was. I forget the shoot date, but this is not going to go well, and we'll keep you posted well.
In reference, yeah, we actually got engaged over Thanksgiving, so you can do the math.
It was not a very long time.
No, that was a short honeymoon right.
That we were at home trying to make but in I will say there was no breakup. Like I didn't know production had been contacted.
I didn't know.
There were conversations of we're going to end this. That's where when what happened on the After Final Rows happened.
I was like, what they just had to tell me?
All you had to do, yeah, was not pull the rug up? So what Mliss is alluding to? So we decide, you know, pretty early on, we started this special called After the Final Rows. Now it's commonplace and they do it every season. We didn't used to always do that, so we do this show after the Final Row. We always had a little bit of a studio audience and it's a lot of fanfare or whatever. And with this one, I get the call and they say, we're going to
do this at Telepicture Studio. It's where they used to shoot the show Extra back in the day over there at Telepictures in Burbank. And I don't even know if that's the studio or the building exists anymore. I know that Extra is not there anymore, but we're going to do it in a dark studio without an audience.
And I didn't know that was abnormal. I had no idea that that was not I'm like.
What and they said yeah, they're like they're like, that's one good thing. I do think maybe it was good they said, you know, we're going to do without an audience, because what's going to happen is I think Jason is going to break up with Melissa and he's going to ask Molly for another chance. He's asking about Molly and I think he's going to go back and ask her for another chance. And I'm like, oh my god, like
what the f is? And so I'm like, okay. So we get there that day and it is the studio is just two chairs.
You didn't know what was going to happen.
No, I didn't know one hundred percent either, because you know, you know, honestly, Jason back then, I don't know if he knew for a hundred percent he was he was a mess. He was he was a puddle of a man at the time. I mean, he was such a wreck. Not to take him off the hook at all, but he was an absolute mess. And I did this really overly dramatic open that you know, we're not going to have an audience, you know, out of respect for everybody involved,
as if that made it better. Uh, you know, but here was the biggest bizarre mistake, because well, we'll continue to talk and then I want to go back and tell you the biggest mistake we made among others. We get in that studio and the first person to come out is you. I don't know, and yeah, you you know, because obviously he had to break up with you first, so we and I don't know if he it might have just been you and I first, or if it
was Jason. I want to say, if I recollect maybe you and I sat and talked a loan first to get a vibe for the what your thoughts were on the relationship, and then y'all were together. But when did you know in that talk that he was going to actually break up? Did you feel the vibe as you walked in?
Still, to be completely honest, I felt something was wrong going into that day, and I, you know, he and I had like a conversation after because I remember before saying, if there's something you need to tell me, like, just tell me now, like I would love to know now
what we're getting into, and he said nothing. And I'm in the little hair and makeup green room and I had an outfit that I was going to wear and they did not like that outfit, and they put me in that little strapless metallic draft, which is nothing that I would normally wear. They gave me the ring and told me to put it on, and then they made me watch the proposal. I'm doing all of this before I go out to talk.
To get you emotional right.
And my mind.
And this is again reality TV was so new, and to me, this was not a show of oh how am I going to act? So I didn't necessarily know I was being prepped for something, but I felt. I was like, I feel like this is really weird. Why why it feels weird going into this?
It feels weird? What I look like? It feels weird. I'm watching this and the way he greeted.
Me, and I don't remember if I was there first or him. It was a really awkward hug greeting.
Yeah.
And in my again, my whole thing was once we're together, we'll be fine. He'll hold my hand, we'll have eye contacts.
And there was none of that, no eye contact. I remember him just turning his head like a little very.
Cold from the start, and I went, Okay, here we go. Interesting, We're gonna do this in Brint of Christ.
All right, And it was just us, you know, there was like three camera guys, but they were pulled back really far there and show blacks and everything was really dark. So it's unlike kind of anything I had ever showed before. Either. It was really strange and sterile almost.
It felt like it was just the three of us in a dark Yeah is what it felt like.
Yeah.
I felt and, like you said, awkward as it starts and Jason starts talking and he says, you know we're going to break up? Yeah? Whatever, Yeah, I saw this change come over you.
I you know what it was embarrassment.
I think when I was so embarrassed that I had gone on this show with people telling me not to do it, my parents telling me don't do it.
I knew people were going to watch this love story.
They were gonna watch me get engaged, they were gonna watch me be happy, and then they're gonna watch me get dumped and broken up with.
And I was so mad at him.
In that moment, because again, we had just had this conversation of just tell me if something's happening, tell me.
I don't.
I mean, listen, I'm with you. We're not on the same right now, but he'll be against me. So yeah, I mean there were a lot of weird emotions. And then I'll be honest, I was looking at you. I was looking at production, going, everybody is about to happen to me and nobody. They sent me out here in the stupid dress with his stupid ring.
And I think you even said in your cute little twenty three year old boys like, I'm so mad at you. Well, and then I.
Started hardly talking in the third person, which I never do.
I don't know how many time I don't remember that.
That's so I can't watch it.
I can't Melissa Ryecroft is this doesn't happen to Melissa. Melissa does this to guys?
It was no, I never did, that was the thing. But I think I was just really embarrassed. I was so mad at him at the time, and I just wanted to get off that stage and get out.
Well, I can think now too, it's you know, that would be like my son right now, which is crazy to think he's twenty two about to turn twenty three. That would be him right now doing being faced with something like that, and you are wholly unprepared mentally, emotionally to handle something like that.
Yeah, and not.
Even realizing at that point again because this was all new, but that millions.
Of people were going to watch this reaction.
And I remember as I was leaving and I went, I'm going to somehow look like the horrible person. Right, he's the bachelor, he's the guy.
Yeah, you have to know that's interesting.
Yeah, my fault and that I've done something and now I you know, I'm going to be the villain in all of this.
So at least that wasn't the case that he he became the biggest villain in the history of the show.
Can I just say the one thing that I really hated out of all of this because you, I mean, you were there a little bit, but not a lot, like Molly and I were friends and all the girls that we were genuinely friends. Jillian and I have coffee in the morning. I never had anything towards Molly, and I don't think I had anything towards me.
I feel no, for sure.
Not.
The media set this whole thing up of you must hate each other, and I'm like him.
I'm gonna be honest.
Yeah, I got at her because she was there for the same reason I was. We got along, right, and yeah, there was never anything anything between us, And to be honest, once I came home and got over the stuff, I wasn't even mad at Jason.
I was like, you did me a favorite, dude, I'm happy, right.
Yeah.
As you get older, you learn, you're like, oh, yeah, I just read to everything that's happened, and yeah, totally you yeah, but that is I do remember. Well. First of all, my perspective was a It was the most awkward, horrifying thing to be sitting through because it's like two friends of yours are getting are breaking up, and you're like, I'm just gonna sit here quietly, and and by the way, one foot away from you, I'm just gonna stay here. I'm just gonna look at you. It was so awkward.
I just wanted to dig a hole underneath my chair, crawl in it, and just go away. But so, you know, as a young kind of host, because I you know, I've been doing this seven years, but it was this was different, and it was unlike anything I had ever hosted before, unlike anything that had ever happened. Again, this had never happened on the show before, it never happened
on reality TV before. It was very groundbreaking and very earth shattering at the time, and it kind of if the Internet had really been firing at that point with social media, it broke the Internet.
I'm so glad it was not, by the way, I am so glad.
Would you imagine could you imagine if social media had existed back then?
Uh No, I mean I am so thankful, Like I think there's people going, oh my gosh, but do you know how huge you guys would be. And I am so thankful that all of that happened. And I actually had time to go home six process go through all those emotions. Because again, you know how I was telling you, I went through all the happiness on my own. I also had to go through this breakup on my own. Like I went back home after this filming. Oh man, we couldn't tell anybody. Hey, I was engaged for six
weeks and then I got dumped. Oh and he went back to the other girl.
You're going to see it all, play it on national TV.
I'm at home in my cubicle, just like spiraling, Like I don't understand what's happened in my life the past two months. It was a very surreal moment, and I cannot imagine if on top of that, I was dealing with people on social media who you've got half that are nice and then you've got half that are just nasty.
About everything you're being kind, I would say three quarters.
Right as a twenty three year old, I mean, that'll totally affect you.
I think, yeah, no, I do you know, I don't relish the people that go through. It's changed now, it's actually it ebbs and flows. It was huge for a minute, right, it was like it got really really big. Now I don't know how much social media cares anymore. The show is just not as as relevant socially relevant as it used to be. But for a while, you know, when some of these women like Caitlin Bristow or some of these women would go through the show, I'm like, good lord,
they're just getting hammered from all sides. And again it's the worst of the worst. And if you're young, like being older, you know, by then I understood. And people sent death threats to me all the time. I mean I would eat those for breakfast, and you just got you know, people would say things about you that are just horrifying or your family, and you let them roll off your back. But when you're twenty two twenty three to twenty five whatever these people are when they're on
the show. That stuff's devastating.
Yeah, because that I think becomes what you think your identity is. When you start here say that about you, Well.
When you wrap your identity up and the good stuff, right, you want to believe that you're that great. You know, everyone's telling you you're awesome, you're awesome, and you start to actually believe you're awesome, which also isn't true. You're not you know, you're not as good as Yeah, you're not as good as the press says, but you're not
as bad as social media says. But people do start believing that they are real, these huge celebrities and they're stars, and you know, because the world has opened up to you in a way that you are not prepared for or used to. Red carpets and you're flying first class here on the late night shows and you're up here, and then you get torn down because people want to do that on social media and it's really brutal.
Well, they want to tear you down, but also there's always somebody knocking at that door. There is going to be the next bachelorette that's gonna then take all your thunder and as awesome as you were for six months. Now you're like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Yeah, what about me? Remember me?
So I am very.
Glad I didn't have that. You know, I was able to. I had a cool little career come out for a few years, but then I was able to just come back to Dallas and be a wife and be a mom and do what I kind of always wanted to do.
Did you did you ever talk to Jason, Molly or Melissa, like, have you are yell in contact at all? Or did y'all ever get a chance to chat?
No?
You know there was one time you remember that show Wife Slop.
Baby, So yeah, y'all did that?
Didn't No, he did not.
Thankfully we were this was this was fifteen years ago, and ty and I were going through the process of it and I was like, I don't know, it could be fun whatever.
Yeah.
Thankfully at the end, one of.
The producers, and she probably was not supposed to tell me this, she goes, hey, I just want to give you a heads up. They want to swap you with Jason and Mollie and Tyne.
I went, no, that's a no for us. By the way great producing. I respect the producers. You know what I did to trying to pull that off.
I hope, yeah, but I went there. They're gonna want this weird conversation that isn't even needed anymore, and they want the drama.
Right, We've all moved I had kids, I think they had had kids at that point. I'm like, it's just.
Not I would love I don't really care about you and Jason. I would love for you and Molly to have a cup of coffee someday, not not on.
Camera, because she got annihilated with him.
She got hammered too, and unfairly, so I mean it was and look, I mean everyone honestly got unfairly hammered. Jason shouldn't have been that, you know, villified either. It wasn't you know, it wasn't cool, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. He wasn't the devil, and he you know, everybody moved on, and you I love the fact that he and Molly fought, you know, fought through all of it, stayed together. They're happily married with kids.
So everybody ended up where they should in life. It just, you know, it doesn't always happen in the perfect way. As I always say, is the stuff I went through. It's like God. God gives you a lot of blessings, a lot of gifts. It doesn't always come in a beautiful little box with a bow on it under the tree.
Right right.
I mean, at the end of the day, Jason and I were never a relationship that was going to last anyway, whether it ended six weeks after we got engaged, or whether we tried to force it create a marriage that was ultimately not gonna last.
Like it was not a relationship that was supposed to happen.
Because I remember talking to you later because we'll talk about this, Melissa and I and I know you guys don't remember we ended up hosting a show together. Yes, we co hosted a show together. But before that, you know, I do remember you going back to Tye and I think you know, or I'll just ask you, did that give you the perspective of who you are, what you really want and to go back and find that and to work on that.
Yes, well it was twofold for us.
Like I I came out of The Bachelor, I feel like a very different person than I went in. I came out stronger. I came out realizing I'm in all these relationships wanting you to want me, wanting you to want me, and I'm not ever sitting there going but do I want you?
Yeah?
Are you selling yourself to me?
Are you a value at in my life?
I I don't know why I was so insecure because I look back at my twenty three year old SLF going girlfriend. You had a ton of things going for you, and yet you were oddly insecure. And now having a daughter now that I like, I get hyper aware of that, of like what happens to make you not realize your worth?
And so I did.
I came out going I'm not doing this anymore. And at the same time, while I was gone on the Bachelor, Ty realized that he wanted to be with me right when he saw me with somebody else and he saw the end that I was engaged to somebody else, that that was his is holy crap, you know what. I wasn't ready.
Right.
I let her go and the worst scenario happened, and so he fought back for me. So I think our relationship worked because we had both changed. It was not the same relationship that it was the first time. But would it have happened if I hadn't left.
I don't think so.
I don't think it wasn't the break you wanted, but it was the break you needed to realize both of you. And so you get done with the with the Bachelor and you did Dance with the Stars. You did? You won that? Didn't you think you won?
I wont it the second time?
Not?
Yeah, the first time, I didn't.
But I also know that they wanted you to be the bachelorette. Yes, they wanted you bad to be the bachelrett Yes that was It ended up being Jillian Jillian season of the Bacherette, who we love and I, oh my god. And no offense, but I had a blast to a Jillian. Yeah.
No, I'm going to take it either load.
But I you know, and this wasn't me making these decisions, So I can just say this honestly, I know they wanted you desperately because it just made sense. I mean, after what we'd just seen, the trials and tribulations, that's what we did at the time. I mean it was the perfect segue into making Melissa Ryecroft the batcherette. Tell me how that how those talks went and why didn't you do it?
I was in the limo on my way back to my hotel after Jason had just broken up with me, and Carrie Lee was doing my interview.
Your producer at the time, right, and she.
Goes, Hey, but good news is you get to be the bachelorette now, and I went, I am fifteen minutes off of this stage.
I'll talk about too soon, right.
And I went and that's like, you think that's a consolation price And I went, no, No, I am.
Not in that at all.
It's going to be a no for me to know.
And then Martin was calling me. They were very adamant that I needed to finish my story. That's what the audience needs to see that you're happy the audience.
Hey.
And my argument, to be fair was, listen, I just saw you throw your bachelor under the bus, and I would feel stupid saying sure, I'll jump right back into that.
You guys will never do that to me, right.
I mean, I'm like, I would be an idiot to trust that you would make this work.
For me, and not very very savvy of you at the time.
At the well, I mean, you know, I was upset.
I was embarrassed. I was so and I know how production works. Now, again, this is all twenty twenty five years. At the time, though, I was like, I feel like I was a little puppet and everybody knew what was happening.
Well, by the way, that's not exactly how production works. That's how the Batchelor production works. And as you know, if you've learned anything, there is nothing like that show in the world of television.
No, what's so funny is you know? Dancing with the Stars came pretty quick after all that, and you.
Know, Dina casts the casting director. She cast a lot of shows, but she was the casting director for Dancing with the Stars for quite some time.
But I would ask her stuff. I said, so at the hotel, is it my name or is it another name? And she goes, yes, it's your name. Why would it be anybody else that I was like, oh, because I was a whole. I was a character, and like they never start aims on Bachelor, but things that I would tell her and she's like, oh, my gosh, no, that's not how we do it. You're allowed to go out during the day, you can go. I was like, I don't have to stay in my hotel room.
I can do things.
Yeah, we come out of this traumatized and damaged, expecting the worst, which is which is probably a good thing, because after you do that show and what happened to you, you were prepared for everything and everything else was just positive in a bonus, I.
Guess so, but yeah, I did. I was very adamant. They did not take my nose. They they fought for a long time. They kept up in the money. I remember that they what.
Did the money get to? Did it get over six figures?
No? No, but this was two thousand and nine too.
It was h no, No, it's exactly.
I know that.
I know Emily Maynard got really high just because of you know, she had a daughter and it was it was taking a lot to get her. But I know, I just remember on the periphery, I would call and me be like, you know, do because I assumed you were going to be the bacherette. And this is also you and I weren't chatting and talking. You know, again, we don't have social media where you could just text somebody. But I just assumed you were going to do it like they because they are persuasive.
Once those numbers kept going up, I was like, dude, I make twenty five thousand dollars a year, my cube.
Well, and you're at this point, you're what twenty three, twenty four years old. It's a year later, and I know who's talking to you. It is the creator of the show. It's all the executive producers. My guess is the head of reality at ABC was definitely talking to you. And I think at the time the president of the network was coming after you. The president of ABC guys.
To put in perspective, that doesn't happen eventually. Typically the Bachelor bechette may meet them, may may meet them, but you were getting the full court press because they felt like the franchise hinged on you coming back to us.
Yeah, and I see that now. At the time, I didn't realize.
I was like, I don't I'm telling them, no, I don't understand why nobody's listening to me. And every time that I would see a phone like a number from California calling me, I was like, oh my god, we have to do this conversation again. But I understand now why they needed me or what I represent, right, They needed that full circle moment because it wouldn't make sense to bring anybody else in after seeing what they.
Just saw right. Well, and it's kind of we were I say again, the third person, we like the Bachelor franchise was catching heat for what we did to you. And and one of the interesting things in a lesson I learned, as much as I had done television, one of the great lessons I learned was we made the mistake of not figuring out a way to make to explain to people how time had passed and in the timeframe. So what happened was we were in New Zealand, Melyssa
gets engaged to Jason. We're happy, happy, you jump in a pool. This is crazy. Oh my god, it's the greatest because everybody loved you. I mean, you were America's sweetheart. Everybody loved you. And Jason the single dad, and oh my god, this is great. Commercial break. Buy some McDonald's, buy some laundry detergent, Come back, Dark Studio.
It aired the same night, didn't it. They did the finale and the afternats.
Well say, it was two and a half minutes later. Literally, we take a commercial break and we come right back to me. You know, Darth Maul, Darth Vader in this dark studio like death warmed over with this very solemn we are doing this out of respect? Is like wait, like what Melissa's hair is still wet? She just fell in a pool two minutes ago, and now we're bringing you out for this unbelievably sad, destructive moment. People tore us apart. I caught so much for that.
I didn't know any of that stuff.
Had taken and that wasn't out of malicious intent at all. That was just us being producers and not thinking ahead of how was this going to be perceived by Bachelor Nation in the public. And I will tell you how it was perceived not well, not well. And so another another reason why everybody woke up for months at a time and just had meeting upon meeting of how do we get Melissa back? Because we also kind of needed you to validate us again and say, oh, I don't
hate them. You know these people are okay.
And to be fair, I have never said I hated No, you did not.
I've never come out and said they're awful, they're horrible, because I wouldn't have ended up where I did without Batcheltte.
And in fact, you, to the contrary, you came back, and you were a part of our family, and you did things with this and all that. You were never malicious and you were never mean. The fans knew to do that without you, But that.
Was also kind of I think, if I recall, my first season of dancing was like the first seasons of social media. Like I remember having a Twitter and never having a Twitter before and figuring that out, and so I do remember because I think the r After the final rowse aired on Monday, Dina Katz called me on a Tuesday and said, Nancy O'Dell has gotten hurt on Dancing with the Stars. We want you to come in again. I said no. I was like, no, I don't ABC.
People are weird.
Take no for answered universal word no, And I called Ty and I were back together at this point mid March, right and I had told him and he goes, well, how much would you get paid? I said, I didn't even ask that. I don't care how much i'd get paid?
Are you kidding?
And he goes, we'll ask, And so I called Dean and I said, all right, this stupid question, how much wohld I get paid? And she told me what week one costs? And I went or what week one pays?
And I went, oh, interesting, because it's I think it was twenty five k just for week one, right, oh it was.
It was a six figure for week one.
Oh, just being oh so they did okay, I forgot I remember they.
And then it goes up by twenty five.
Then it goes out okay. Oh, then it goes oh got it, got it, got okay. So yeah, so just being on You're like, oh, okay, so we're talking.
So I was like, ty, I could go for week one and get kicked off, you know, and I have made five years of what I would make, and I obviously I had to talk to you.
I think it was Martin at the time.
Yeah, yes, And so then and there was a very contentious relationship between for our production. And I know you're thinking, wait, it's ABC, So there's all this love, there's not. It is so dysfunctional, it is so toxic. It is a mess because the creator of our show hates ABC, and ABC hates the creator of our show. So I was always the bastard stepchild caught in the middle, and so were you. So were was everybody else who's trying to
you know, you'd think there's this synergy. There is at the point that Melissa is talking about, there is zero synergy, and so Dina and them were reaching out and now you're thinking, oh, I'll just do this, but the Bachelor didn't want you to do it.
I want me to do it.
Yeah, it was I don't know how it happened. I assume if I had to think back, Bachelor finally had to wave a white flag and go, if we need the world to see that she's okay and she's not going to do it with us, we have to let her do it now.
They were not happy about it. I know that now.
Oh, trust me. They were pissed because they felt like you were being stolen from us. Our story, Our girl was being stolen from us, and her story was going to continue, but not on our franchise, and it was a huge blow to us. It was an ego blow for them, and it was also a financial blow because it did I mean, I again, I love Jillian. No, she was flight against her, but a Melissa Ryecroft Bacherette season would have been massive, off the charts massive.
In those meetings, could they not understand why I was saying?
No?
Are they like? I don't get it. Why would she not want to do this?
The ego is not would not allow that to happen. And it was just like, this is just this person who I created, who owes me everything. How dare her turn me down? Where it turns from I love you, I love you. I love you too, I will ruin you. I don't know if you felt that, but I'm sure it happened.
I mean I didn't feel I will ruin you, but I was definitely cast off. Like people would always ask, oh, why are you not at these Bachelor events?
Why are you not here? Why are you not there? I'm like, I don't get invited.
You're dead to us. A lot of people try, you know, wanted to do Caitlin Bristow was a great example of She wanted to be on dancing and made it very well known, and they held that over her and did not allow it to happen for a long time. Yeah, and then finally cooler heads prevailed and she did dancing.
And then it kind of became commonplace that you'll do The Bachelor and go on Dancing with the Stars, and that became kind of a routine because one show kind of would help the other and vice versa, which again one of the craziest moments in my career was I had been asked to help do an interview for another ABC show and I thought, it's ABC, right, Like, they're
my boss too. So I worked for Telepictures, Warner Brothers, Bachelor People, but I also worked for ABC, so if they asked me to do something, I'm going to do it. It's the network and it I was used as a pawn the same way and my job was threatened. It was crazy. So I saw this happening to.
You well when I really felt it. And you'll know this because you were there too when all the Bachelor pen stuff happened, and that was a battle between ABC and Warner Horizon, and ABC wanted me to be a part of the show and Warner Horizon did not. And I have nothing to do with it. I'm not sitting here going yep. I'm like, I'm kind of I'm new to this whole thing. I'll do whatever you.
Want me to do.
This is so after just to catch people up after Dancing with the Stars, Melissa and I co hosted a show called Bachelor Pad.
Was a fantastic premise for a show.
It was It was poorly produced. We brought somebody in because it was it turned into a bit of a game show. Yeah, there was like I don't know if I forget quarter of a million dollars to the winter or whatever. It was this prisoner's dilemma at the end. And it was a really cheaply shot show too. We shot it at the mansion. We literally did most of the challenges in the driveway at the mansion. So it was the prelude to what became Bachelor in Paradise.
That ever better though than Bachelor of Paradise because you have that end.
Goal the game. Well, you have the game element, which was good and bad because then it became about the game and not love. And there were several issues with her, which I can dive into, but the whole point was I get a call and I will again one of those moments with Melissa I'll never forget. I'm at a little League game for my son and I get a call from the creator of the show and he's like, hey, I got great news for you. And whenever he called and said I have great news, I knew it was
nothing good for my career in my life. And he goes Melissa Ryecroft is going to co host this new show, Bachelor Pad with you. I'm like what who? Like what what? And he's like yeah, and he's like, this comes from the President of ABC, Steve McPherson. This comes from the highest of highs at ABC. She is going to be a part of this franchise. And I'm like, okay, well, I mean okay, I no saying this. And so you and I met and it was wonderful and we had
a good time and we figured it out. The show was not made for two people, and so we you and I figured it out, and I hope you know, I really went out of my weight. I'm like, okay, I'm going to try and make this happen so we can both be co hosting this together because that format wasn't prepared for that. And you and I co hosted that summer together, which was actually great. We had a great time.
It was fun.
No, it was a lot of fun. I mean I at that point, I came in extremely green. You know, I was not expecting anything to happen that happened after Bachelor, right, I mean, back in our days of Bachelor, you were a contestant and then you went back off to your world, like it was not a what else can I parlay?
I knew very well.
I was walking into other people's territory. It was like, this is not my show. I feel weird. He was just looking at me a year ago and except a.
Rose like, I get it.
I just remember from I could I could definitely tell from the production the standpoint. I was like, I they have lost this battle, and I know they've lost this battle, and I'm just gonna.
Tiptoe and keep my spot where they want me. I will.
I think I was unmiked, Like the last three episodes of we filmed, They're like, we're not even gonna put the mic on you.
I was like, that's.
Okay, that's okay, And I know you were also, you know we did that together. You're rumored to be heading to Dancing with the Stars as the host of that.
I know you were up for that for a while. Yeah, but it was a It's funny that, you know, someone who came on the show as a contestant became such an important part of this franchise in so many interesting ways, and in front of the camera but also behind the scenes, like you were the tipping point of a lot of things that happened on this franchise weird.
But I think a lot of it was timing too. You know, the it happened, it was going from what you call like the og Bachelor's into this new age world and social media, and you know, now these people are getting notoriety and it's not I mean, it was just world was changing right at the time that this huge event happened to happen on the show. So it really just had it happened two years earlier, I don't think any of this would have happened.
You know.
And then flash forward to like Ari season when the switch happened again and I was fully prepared. I sat him down, I said, let me tell you how this is going to go, and let me tell you how this is going to go for you. It's not going to go well, but it was. I was so prepared for that moment with him and Becca and Laura, and it was like it's like it wasn't it was a big deal, but it wasn't what I you know, wasn't the earth shattering moment that became the most dramatic moment
in Bachelor history. I mean, Melissa, thank you so much. I totally really appreciate that the time. I love talking to you, and we have to do this again soon. In fact, we have to do it real soon because we're going to talk about your time as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, which is all the rage right now thanks to Netflix and this document. So as you wrap this one up, go check out the next interview with Melissa as we talk all about her experience of being a
Dallas Caboy cheer leader. Thank you, Melissa, Thanks thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.