Jason Mesnick is defending his decision to dump Bachelor winner Melissa Rycroft for runner-up Molly Malaney on Monday night’s shocking Bachelor finale.

“How was I supposed to lead somebody on, or keep on going, if it really wasn’t there?” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday. “That’s the honest truth. Did America want me to say, ‘Lead someone on?’ Why would anyone do something like that?”

He later said, “Engagements do end – that’s real life.”

So what went wrong with Melissa?

After he proposed to her, he said they spent six weeks together before taping the After the Rose special.

“What really happened is, the chemistry was completely different, the relationship was completely different,” he said. “The openness and how we reacted and related to each other and the conversations, which were so great on the show, were completely different.”

(Kimmel asked Mesnick why he didn’t just date her after the finale, in lieu of proposing. But Mesnick said he just got caught up. “Everything I was ever looking for, at that time in my life, was Melissa,” he explained. “On that very last day, that was exactly what I wanted.”)

Asked if he and Molly are still together, Mesnick said, “Yes, absolutely.”

Wedding plans?

“There is no talk about that,” he said. “We’re taking it at our own pace.”

Would Melissa be invited to the ceremony?

“If she wanted to come,” Mesnick said. “I think, at some point, her and I will be friends again.”

Kimmel shot back: “No, you will not.”

Does his four-year-old son Ty understand what went down, Kimmel then asked.

“He’s more interested … in Speed Racer than anyone else,” Mesnick replied.

Will he dump his son for a blonde child, Kimmel joked.

Mesnick laughed before replying, “No way!”

Source