Melissa Rycroft has broken her silence regarding her break-up with The Bachelor star Jason Mesnick.

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According to Rycroft, she didn't take very long after the couple's return from the taping of the season's Final Rose Ceremony in New Zealand for Mesnick to tell her he'd changed his mind about their relationship.

"It was pretty immediate.  Once we got back [from New Zealand] we both kind of sat in the real world and you know, we were talking about how it was different and it in all fairness, I think it is when you take the cameras away," Rycroft told Ellen DeGeneres during Thursday's broadcast of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  "It was just at that point when we brought up how difficult it was, he kind of gave up and I couldn't understand why.  At that time -- now I do, because I think there was someone else involved."

Rycroft told DeGeneres that the couple had already ended their relationship by January's taping of The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special and she knew Mesnick was probably going to officially break-up with her on-air during the taping.

"On that After the Final Rose, I wasn't getting dumped [there] -- we had already ended the relationship and that was mutual," Rycroft said.

Instead of being upset about the on-air break-up, Rycroft said she was actually angry about Mesnick's subsequent admittance that he was ending the relationship because he still had feelings for runner-up Molly Malaney -- a fact he had previously repeatedly denied to her.

"That is where my feelings of betrayal came in," Rycroft told DeGeneres.  "I had repeatedly asked him, you know, 'Is Molly involved in anything?' and when they moved up the taping of that After the Final Rose I was like well, 'Why did we move the taping up, what's going on?'  I asked Jason 'Am I going to be blindsided by anything, is there anything you want to tell me?' and he said 'No, no, no gosh, no' and the second I want out on that stage he went 'Well P.S -- it is Molly' and I went 'Bastard.'"

Rycroft said that she had been suspicious that Mesnick had continued speaking with Malaney after the show had finished taping -- a charge Mesnick has denied -- and said she is sure of at least one communication between the two

"I think, first being a girl you get that feeling. I mean anybody whose been cheated on, you know.  And being a woman, I got that feeling because I went 'Well he just backed away from me' and I knew he had contacted her," Rycroft told DeGeneres.  "I knew that there had been at least one contact that I knew about, where he was 'checking on her.' And so it was just in the back of my mind, I would just casually ask 'Are you talking to her? Have you talked to her? Tell me, just be honest.' [And] he kept saying no."

Rycroft also told DeGeneres that she was accepting of the school of thought that, given she had gone on television seeking to find love, the broadcasting of the couple's subsequent break-up was also fair game.

"I have to.  I mean, at the end of the day, I look and I say 'I signed up for this,' I knew the premise of the show -- this is not the first season by far," Rycroft said.  "I know everything is played out on TV, but it feels so different when you're in it, and honestly when you're in it you go through these feelings of 'It's not fair that everyone gets to see me go through all these emotions without me getting a chance to react to them privately.'"

During the interview, Rycroft also confirmed the legitimacy of a recently leaked series of emails in which Mesnick told her The Bachelor's producers "had a lot to do with" his decision to break-up with her on-air and she subsequently told him she "didn't believe" him and chided that he is "a grown man... perfectly capably of making his own decisions" who should "own your actions and stop blaming this process."

"That was actually right after we that After the Final Rose," Rycroft said about the email exchange, which began the morning after the special's January 18 taping. 

"I instigated it -- and I [look] back and wish I hadn't. I felt I needed to apologize for getting angry with him [during the taping] but at the same time, I said 'I hope you know why I got that made.'  Because we weren't talking at that point -- it's not like I was going to just call him up -- and so that was my way of saying 'This is my closure.'  I was mad, I'm sorry but this is it, don't reply back."

Rycroft also made it clear that she disagrees with Mesnick's recent comments that he feels he'll eventually be friends with her -- and added that she also doesn't have any desire to develop a friendship with Malaney either.

"No... Jason and Molly don't quite have the characteristics of someone I would want to be friends with," she told DeGeneres.  "I feel like on a level, they both did betray me. I understand it was a break-up, and I'm not mad about that, we all get broken up with.  But to be lied to...."

In her time since her emotional conclusion on The Bachelor, Rycroft said that she had made steps to move on and had already began dating someone who, ironically enough, is named Ty -- the same name as Mesnick's four-year-old son.

"Because of the privacy and everything going on, we haven't really been able to explore a new relationship, but now that everything is over, I'm so excited," she said.  "I've known him for two years and kind of done the dating on/off. He has been my biggest rock and supporter throughout this whole process and so he's become my best friend."

"Ty is Jason's son's name... how weird that is that you're with someone named Ty?  Maybe you'll have a child together and name it Jason," quipped DeGeneres.

"Yeah... no," Rycroft responded with a laugh.
About The Author: John Bracchitta

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