The Bachelor
Gossip (Page 3)

Relatives of ABC's first Canadian Bachelorette, the awesome Jillian Harris, are keeping their hopes up and fingers crossed that the restaurant designer and Jason Mesnick castoff will find true love a second time on reality TV.

"I hope she finds that best friend she is looking for, her soulmate," said her aunt Mona Harris from her home town of Peace River, Alberta.

"She's got a good personality; she's a good person and she's got a good job. I think she'll do just great," her uncle Mark Harris said.

Jillian's rising stardom has become the talk of her hometown since she was named the star of the fifth installment of The Bachelorette Tuesday night on the lame second installment of The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special show.

On The Bachelor, the fan favorite came in third behind interim winner Melissa Rycroft and Jason Mesnick's current girlfriend Molly Malaney.

Now Jillian Harris, 29, will have her pick of 25 eligible suitors.

Given that Jason controversially dumped Melissa for Molly on the first After the Final Rose special, Jillian's parents think it may have been a blessing in disguise that their daughter was eliminated before the series' final rose ceremony.

"I think Jillian realizes there is no guarantee, but sometimes magic happens," her mom Peggy said. "I'm not sure what she considers her odds to be, but I guess no different than meeting someone at the gym. It's going to be interesting."

While Jillian Harris is under strict orders not to speak to media about the show, she indicated in an ABC press release that she is confident she will ultimately find love starring on The Bachelorette, which debuts Monday, May 18.

Click to enlarge more Jillian Harris pictures below ...

After a stunning turn of events to conclude an epic 13th season of The Bachelor, the controversy surrounding Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney may finally be abating.

But will the lovebirds actually tie the knot?

Some critics have lambasted Jason for publicly dumping Melissa Rycroft, who he initially offered the final rose (and an engagement ring) on the series. Similarly, many others faulted Molly Malaney for taking Jason back after the whole charade.

Given these developments, and the fact that a whopping none of the previous 12 stars of The Bachelor have wed their final rose recipients, it would seem, at least on paper, that the odds are highly against Jason and Molly walking down the aisle.

Will they beat those odds? Tell us in the survey below:

Will Molly Malaney marry Jason Mesnick?

Welcome, celebrity gossip fans, to The Hollywood Gossip Caption Contest, a Friday tradition, now in its 72nd week. Who won this week's Caption Contest?

This photo of The Bachelor's Jason Mesnick and Melissa Rycroft generated some great responses. We've chosen Denise as this week's winner. Congratulations!

DeAnna, I mean Molly, no, sorry I mean Melissa. Will you marry me?

Continuing his apology publicity tour, Jason Mesnick insists he never cheated on The Bachelor winner Melissa Rycroft with runner-up Molly Malaney before he publicly dumped the former for the latter on the "After the Final Rose" special.

It's not easy being "the most hated man in America right now," or so Jason said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this morning, where he offered this to fans:

"I think what I want to do is to apologize to everybody out there. All the fans of the show because thank you for watching, but this was my real life."

"It was the hardest thing I've had to do," Jason said of the controversial switcheroo.

"I made some big mistakes and that's what I wanted to sit here and talk about today - the mistakes I made. But in the end I found my true love."

He also expressed regret over telling Melissa Rycroft on camera about Molly (Melissa said Jason lied about her yesterday in her own interview on Ellen).

"I completely regret doing that," Mesnick said with seeming sincerity and Molly Malaney by his side. "I regretted it every single day since that happened."

"I will regret it every day for the rest of my life. The producers obviously really wanted me to do it on the show, but I take responsibility for my actions."

Follow the jump for more reactions from Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, and a video of their interview with Ellen DeGeneres ...

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It's been quite a week for Jason Mesnick.

More than 17 million viewers watched the single dad get down on one knee and propose to Dallas beauty Melissa Rycroft on the two-hour season finale of The Bachelor, only to dump her like 45 seconds later on the "After the Final Rose" special.

Mesnick then confessed he still had feelings for Michigan department store buyer Molly Malaney - to the dismay of Rycroft, who said in her first interview after the finale that Jason lied about Molly to her on more than one occasion.

The shocking events will be hotly debated for some time, but Jason and Molly are brushing off the haters and looking very happy on the cover of People.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with the celeb news magazine, Jason again defends his decision to dump Melissa Rycroft in front of the ABC cameras.

"That was part of the deal. I signed up for this. Your relationship is - good and bad - in front of everybody," Mesnick lied to People through his teeth.

In her interview, as well as her personal emails to Jason, Melissa Rycroft did corroborrate The Bachelor star's statement that they drifted apart shortly after they returned from New Zealand and tried to resume their normal lives.

"After we got back into the real world, we had less to talk about, and I didn't know why," says Jason, who couldn't stop thinking about the girl he left behind.

Turns out Molly Malaney shared similar feelings.

"After the finale I thought he made the wrong decision and I was so upset. I was totally shocked," Malaney says. "I thought, Gosh, it would be so awesome if he called me up and was like 'I made a mistake, I want you back.'"

"Never in a million years did I think it would happen."

After a tumultuous and "historic" season finale of The Bachelor, Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney say they are extremely happy. Melissa Rycroft? Not so much.

On today's Ellen DeGeneres Show, M-Ry is speaking out for the first time about being dispatched by her Bachelor fiance on national TV and how hurt she was when she discovered that he had been dating runner-up Molly.

When did things fall apart? Melissa says "it was pretty immediate" after the finale that Jason Mesnick realized he didn't want to be with her.

"Once we got back to the real world, we were talking about how [our relationship] was different. He kind of gave up, and I couldn't understand why at the time. Now I do - because I think there was someone else involved."

"And that is where my feelings of betrayal came in," Melissa Rycroft added.

Melissa says their engagement did not end on TV, as it may have appeared to viewers who saw him propose 25 seconds prior, but Jason was still dishonest.

The chemistry between these two faded fast after the finale.

"I knew on the night After the Final Rose [aired], I wasn't getting dumped. We had already ended the relationship and that was mutual."

"I repeatedly asked Jason, 'Is Molly involved in anything?' And when they moved up the taping of the After the Final Rose special [to January], I was thinking to myself, 'Why did we move the taping up? What's going on?'"

"I asked Jason, 'Am I going to be blind-sided by anything? Is there anything you want to tell me?' And he said, 'No, gosh no.' And the second I went out on that stage, he goes, 'P.S. it is Molly.' And I went, 'Bastard!'"

Even as Jason Mesnick initially denied he was dating Molly Malaney, Melissa Rycroft had a hunch something was going on with them.

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The Bachelor may be over, but judging by the number of comments on this site and many others devoted to the controversial ending of the 13th season, viewers can't comprehend what they just saw - and still have many questions.

The Seattle Times talked to Jason Mesnick and new girlfriend Molly Malaney in the aftermath of the "shocking" and "intimate" finales. Here's what they said:

Q: Can we start from the beginning? Last time I talked to you in early December, you were engaged to Melissa. Did you ever expect to change your mind?

Jason Mesnick: I would never have proposed if I thought I was going to change my mind. If I had a few more months things would have been different. With the time constraints on the show, at the time I thought I was making the right decision.

Q: You spent the holidays with Melissa in L.A. Was Molly on your mind that whole time?

Jason Mesnick: Initially, I tried to ignore it. Any time I would think about Molly I would be like, "Forget it." I made a decision, I'm going to get married to Melissa. But every day, I just remember thinking, okay, first of all I feel really bad what I did to Molly. And then slowly, I would say, week after week it started building more and more. It was like, now I just don't feel bad, there's a piece of me that's still gone.

Q: Did you fall out of love with Melissa Rycroft?

Jason Mesnick: Melissa is that person I thought going into it I would end up with. I guess in a way she's similar to a lot of other girls I've dated in my life, which is part of the reason why I ended up picking her. It was just something I thought I wanted when realistically, there's probably a reason why my past relationships haven't worked out. What I really needed was somebody different and it was Molly.

Q: The decision to do it on television has been what everyone has been talking about. Did you actually tell Melissa beforehand?

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We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone
Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall.

We call them weak
Who are unable to resist
The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all.

-- Garth Brooks, "Standing Outside the Fire"

Was The Bachelor finale staged?

Did Jason Mesnick always plan on choosing Molly Malaney as his wife, only to be told by ABC producers that maximum drama would be achieved if he first handed Melissa Rycroft the final rose, only to dump her on national TV for Molly?

We don't know. We'll likely never know.

But we do know this: Molly Malaney is a brave soul, one that followed her heart and is now waking up every morning next to the man she loves. How many people out there would give anything to say the same thing about themselves?

Our site has received record traffic and a record-number of comments following this week's roller coaster week of reality TV.

We appreciate it. We sincerely thank everyone that has taken the time to read the latest news on The Bachelor and share his/her opinion on such a stunning turn of events. Keep the responses coming!

Sometimes, though, members of our staff also feel the need to speak out. This is one of those times.

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As the fallout from the season finale of The Bachelor continues, Access Hollywood claims to have uncovered personal e-mails between Jason Mesnick and Melissa Rycroft, his chosen fiancee who he dumped on national TV four minutes later.

In the first of several emails, Melissa Rycroft expressed her anger at Jason following the "After the Rose" special (taped in mid-January), in which Jason dumped her hard and opted for a second chance with runner-up Molly Malaney.

While Jason's change of heart shocked viewers who saw it unfold about 16 seconds after their televised engagement, Melissa may have seen it coming.

She wrote in the e-mail dated January 19:

"Last night didn't go NEAR how I thought... I still can't believe how you can't give reasons other than 'It changed.'... You know as well as I do that you didn't give 100% to me or the relationship. I don't understand how you can walk away form something without giving it your all. But I am walking away knowing I did."

Jason hands Melissa a rose (and false hope) in the season premiere.

In the initial e-mail after the taping, Melissa Rycroft seemed quite clued in to Jason's feelings for Molly Malaney prior to his tearful TV confession:

"And getting confirmation about Molly in front of people like that was a complete classless move if you ask me - how could you do that to me after I repeatedly asked you about it? I'm not stupid, I knew about Molly... and you lied to me about it. I can't even tell you how much respect I lost for you... but it makes this whole process from here on out much easier for me."

Follow the jump to read more and see the emails themselves ...

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Nearly lost amid the controversy surrounding Jason Mesnick, Melissa Rycroft and Molly Malaney on The Bachelor finale and aftermath was this awesome news:

The adorable Jillian Harris - who finished in third place on the controversial installment of The Bachelor - will headline the new season of The Bachelorette!

"I am so excited," said Harris, 29, an interior designer from Canada who emerged as a dark horse candidate to become Mrs. Jason Mesnick this winter.

Showing her great sense of humor, Jillian (who also goes by "Jill") jokingly thanked Jason for giving her the chance to have 25 men compete for her love.

"It's a very unorthodox way to find love. but we are living in a world where people are doing things differently," she said. "It's a great opportunity."

"I fell in love once before and I know it's a great venue for me to fall in love again."

"Seeing what Jason went through makes you realize there's no guarantees in life," Jillian Harris added. "I only hope I make the right choice the first time."

Referencing her dad's reaction on her hometown date, Jillian also made one promise about the new season: "I don't need my dad to see any more hot tub scenes."

As The Bachelorette star Jillian follows DeAnna Pappas, who infamously rejected Jason Mesnick on The Bachelor finale after being spurned herself by Brad Womack on the previous Bachelor finale. It's the circle of life, Bachelor style.

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette host-pimp, the great Chris Harrison, said that Harris has "really captured America's heart and the groundswell of support for her to become the new Bachelorette was overwhelming."

We can certainly see why. Click to enlarge more Jillian Harris pics: