Jason Mesnick’s Wife Molly Reveals She Gave Up ‘Bachelorette’ Role For Him: ‘It Was Easy To Let That Go’

Molly Mesnick says she gave up a chance to be The Bachelorette star when her future husband, Jason Mesnick, asked to see her again following his controversial season of The Bachelor in 2009.

More than a decade after Jason became America’s most-hated Bachelor ever for dumping fiancée Melissa Rycroft on the After the Final Rose special, Molly — his rejected runner-up — recalled that it was an easy decision for her to give up ABC’s leading lady role so that she could be with him again.

Appearing via video chat on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!, Molly revealed that she had already agreed to be on The Bachelorette before Jason pursued her for a second time after breaking up with Melissa on camera.

“It was probably a week after I had gotten back from [the finale in] New Zealand that I got the phone call. And I’m like, ‘I still am like crying, sad, upset.'” Molly said, per the Daily Mail.

“But when I took a flight out for After the Final Rose, I thought I was coming out there to film that real quick and then stay and do some like Bachelorette stuff. But boy did that change,” she added, according to People.

Molly also admitted that it wasn’t hard for her to pass up the adventure and romance of The Bachelorette, despite the fact that being asked to star on the show was “a really big deal.”

“I was hesitant, I didn’t think I was right for it, so it was easy to let that go.”

In the end, Jillian Harris, another contestant who was left heartbroken by Jason, took on the role instead of Molly.

Jason and Molly, meanwhile, dated long distance for nearly a year before she agreed to move to Seattle with him. They married in 2010 in a TV wedding hosted by ABC and welcomed a daughter, Riley, a few years later.

While the couple received a lot of hate over the years from disgruntled fans who thought Melissa got a raw deal, Jason’s ex posted to Instagram (seen here) ahead of the update show to reveal that she was never “mad” at Molly over the situation.

“Jason and Molly are great people who have created a beautiful life together,” she wrote.

Although she did not go on to star on The Bachelorette, Melissa competed – and won – on Dancing with the Stars and later married Tye Strickland, a boyfriend she had dated before she was on the ABC dating show.