The Bachelor's Jason Mesnick Reveals The 'Massive Karma' For Dumping Melissa Rycroft

jason mesnick the bachelor abc
(Image credit: ABC)

Spoilers ahead for the Jason Mesnick episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever.

In the latest episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever, it was Jason Mesnick's turn for a blast to the past. Although Jason was one of the relatively few Bachelor Nation leads to actually get a happily-ever-after following his turn on The Bachelor in Season 13, he was one of the most hated men in the franchise for a while. Jason was the first man in Bachelor Nation to propose to one woman, only to dump her for her runner-up afterward, and his dumping of Melissa Rycroft for Molly Malaney didn't go over well. Now, Jason has revealed that he suffered some "massive karma" after making the switch.

Jason Mesnick appeared on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever with now-wife Molly Malaney by his side for a chat with Chris Harrison. The episode had just finished reairing the brutal Season 13 "After the Final Rose" breakup between Jason and Melissa Rycroft followed by Jason confessing his love to Molly, and current Jason knew that viewers probably weren't too happy with him. Just because the dumping first happened in 2009 doesn't mean it's any easier to watch in 2020! Jason directly addressed viewers who might be mad at him, saying:

I wanna go back. So you see this? Right when we stopped filming, we went to a house. You know, they lock us up in a house so nobody can see us. And I fell in the pool, on the edge of the pool, and literally cracked my knee and went straight to the bone. So this is, if anybody felt angry at me, I got some massive karma because my bone was hanging out with my new girlfriend... So an ambulance has to come, but because we can’t go out in public, and nothing has aired yet.

To Molly Malaney's chagrin, Jason Mesnick provided visual proof of his "karma" injury by lifting his leg up to the camera to show off his scar (and shorts tan line). Molly did add to the story, however, and shared that she "had to like hide in the closet" and leave Jason "bleeding on the side of a pool" following the incident because nobody could know who Jason had chosen. Bachelor Nation endings have been spoiled by people being spotted in the real world together in the past, and that was not going to be the case for Jason's season if they could help it!

Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, who are now married parents of two, told the story laughingly, so nobody was traumatized by the injury to the point that they couldn't talk about it more than a decade later. Of course, Melissa Mycroft is the one whose reaction might have been interesting back in the day, but Melissa too has moved on and started a family of her own. She is a married mom of three and seemed perfectly content with her life when she appeared on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever, so maybe all's well that ends well.

In case you missed Jason Mesnick's episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever and need to see proof that his story of karmic retribution for dumping Melissa is true, take a look:

the bachelor the greatest seasons ever jason mesnick abc screenshot

Despite Jason Mesnick earning the ire of Bachelor Nation for a bit, his very rainy wedding to Molly Malaney aired on ABC, and they stand as a Bachelor Nation couple that actually kept their happy ending beyond the end of their "After the Final Rose" special. Throw in the fact that Jason has arguably been eclipsed by the likes of Juan Pablo Galavis and Arie Luyendyk as most disliked Bachelor leading men, and his story seems pretty fully told. I for one have fully moved on to focusing my frustration on Arie!

In all seriousness regarding Jason Mesnick's season, there were highs, there were lows, and there was apparently a bloody injury shortly after Jason dumped Melissa Rycroft on television rather than on the side without any cameras present. Every episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever has been a messy three-hour retrospective, but not necessarily bloody! Find out what Chris Harrison has in store next on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons Ever with new episodes on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).