'Bachelor' Changes Mind, Picks Runner-Up

March 3, 2009 — -- The star of ABC's "The Bachelor" stunned viewers Monday night when he revealed that he was dumping the woman he picked and proposed to and rekindling his relationship with the first runner-up in the reality love competition.

Jason Mesnick proposed to an ecstatic Melissa Rycroft who gleefully accepted during the finale of the reality love competition that aired Monday night. During a reunion special that followed the finale, Mesnick initially sang the praises of Melissa, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

"She is incredible, sweet, beautiful and everybody's been watching and I lived it," a somber Mesnick said in an audience-less studio surrounded by candles. But he said, "Since this all ended, things have been different."

Then he told Melissa that his heart truly belonged to department store buyer and runner-up Molly Malaney and that he was ending their courtship.

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"We're not right for each other," Mesnick said to Melissa. He said that after spending time with each other during the holidays he noticed their chemistry had changed.

"I trusted you with everything. He knows what I've been through," an irritated Melissa said. "I'm so mad at you."

"I don't get it at all because none of it makes sense," Melissa said before handing over the engagement ring he had given her.

She expressed her disappointment and anger about the single father's decision.

'I've been through a ton of heartbreak. You've been through a ton of heartbreak," Melissa said. "You should know better than to do something like that."

She kept a defiant resolve until she entered the limo for a confessional where she broke down.