Melissa Rycroft Biography

Melissa Rycroft (Melissa Katherine Rycroft) is an American television personality, host, and dancer. She is best known for participating as a bachelorette on the thirteenth season of The Bachelor.

Rycroft studied dance from an early age and served as first lieutenant of her high school drill team. She majored in Marketing at the University of North Texas and was a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

Melissa Rycroft Bachelorette

Rycroft participated as a bachelorette on the thirteenth season of ABC’s The Bachelor, on the CMT reality TV series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, and on the eighth and fifteenth seasons of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. She went on to host reality-TV competition shows such as Bachelor Pad and Redneck Island.

Melissa Rycroft Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader | Melissa Rycroft Dcc

After graduating from the University of North Texas, she auditioned for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Rycroft danced for the team from 2006-2008. As a cheerleader, Rycroft made regular appearances on Country Music Television’s reality show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.

Melissa Rycroft Bachelor

She appeared on the 13th season of The Bachelor as one of the 25 bachelorettes competing for bachelor Jason Mesnick. In the season finale, Mesnick chose Rycroft over runner-up Molly Malaney, and proposed to her. Shortly after the proposal, Mesnick left Rycroft, explaining that he had feelings for Malaney.

Melissa Rycroft Dancing With The Stars | Melissa Rycroft Dwts

She first competed on season eight of Dancing with the Stars where she was partnered with Tony Dovolani and finished in third place. Rycroft and Dovolani once again served as partners in the All-Stars season and they were announced as the winners on the season finale.

Rycroft later served as the host of the 2015 Dancing with the Stars live tour. She later returned in season 27 as a trio partner to Cheryl Burke and Juan Pablo Di Pace.

On June 1, 2018, Rycroft left the Tribune morning show, Morning Dose. She is a host of CMT’s reality-TV show Redneck Island.

Melissa Rycroft Age | How Old Is Melissa Rycroft?

She was born on March 11, 1983 in Dallas, Texas, United States. He is 35 years old as of 2018.

Melissa Rycroft Husband | Melissa Rycroft And Tye Strickland

Melissa got married to insurance agent, Tye Strickland, in 2009 after dating for several years. The couple has three children; one daughter and two sons.

On November 8, 2018, Rycroft and husband Tye Strickland launched a podcast with YEA Networks. “Logically Irrational” delves into relationships, family, pop culture and Reality TV. Episodes release each Thursday morning on iTunes.

Melissa Rycroft Kids

Rycroft and Tye have three children: daughter Ava Grace, born February 16, 2011 and two sons Beckett Thomas, born April 20, 2014, and Cayson Jack, born May 18, 2016.

Jason Mesnick And Melissa Rycroft

Rycroft was briefly engaged to Jason Mesnick, whom she met on The Bachelor. Mesnick called their engagement off after he admitted he was in love with runner-up, Molly Malaney. Rycroft then returned to a former boyfriend, salesman Tye Strickland and they got married.

Melissa Rycroft Boyfriend

Rycroft had a seven-year relationship with a boy she met in school. Their relationship ended abruptly when he broke off with Rycroft while they were in college. The boy married another girl within 2 weeks after they ended their relationship.

Melissa Rycroft Book

• 2012: My Reality

Melissa Rycroft Feet | Melissa Rycroft Bikini | Melissa Rycroft Hot

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Melissa Rycroft Twitter

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Melissa Rycroft Interview

Interviewer: How has the transition been from two children to three?
Melissa Rycroft: It’s been much easier than I thought it would be. Everybody says that the work grows exponentially with every baby you bring in. But, Cayson is the easiest baby I’ve had and for my third I’ll totally take it.

Interviewer: Any tricks for managing three kids under the age of 6 that you can share?
Melissa Rycroft: My goal is to keep things running in our house as they did before Cayson was born. While I was pregnant, I thought, ‘I don’t want my other two to have their lives disrupted.’ That means I have to do things like make lunches the night before to save time the next morning. I’m working on overload, but parents with older kids are always telling me that this time will fly by, so I know things will only be like this for a short time.

Interviewer: Is it annoying when people talk to you about time flying by right now? It’s almost like a guilt trip for being exhausted…
Melissa Rycroft: It used to be annoying but now I try to put it behind me. I know time flies by. At the same time, I don’t really want it to fly by. This is the only time in my life when it’s going to be like this. So there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Stop telling me that it’s going to get better and it’s going to get easier.’ There’s a part of me that doesn’t really want it to yet.

Interviewer: Together, the first letter of your kids’ names spells out ABC. What inspired their names?
Melissa Rycroft: My husband randomly heard the name Ava on the way to work, and that’s how her name came about. Then, the day after I found out I was pregnant again, I had a really crazy dream that I was having a boy and his name was Beckett. I had never heard that name before! So I told Tye, ‘If this baby ends up being a boy I think somebody already told us what his name is supposed to be.’ Lo and behold, we had a boy and the name stuck. When I was pregnant with Cayson, we thought it would be cool if we could find a C name that we liked, so we could have their initials be ABC. And we did!

Interviewer: You started working for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders a week after Cayson was born. Was it difficult to go back to work so quickly?
Melissa Rycroft: No—I think it really helped my sanity to go back to work. With Ava, I kind of lost myself for a little bit. This time around, I kept doing my normal routine and the kids’ normal routine and we incorporated Cayson into it. I go to work. I go work out. I put makeup on my face every once in a while. I wish I would have known how important it is not to lose yourself after having a baby the first time around.

Interviewer: Speaking of work, we know you from ‘The Bachelor.’ How did the show change your life?
Melissa Rycroft: Not only did it give me a crazy career but in some weird ways it gave me confidence. When I first started out with “The Bachelor” I was a little heartbroken 24-year-old working a 9 to 5 job and I just felt lost in the world. I didn’t know where I was supposed to be. I was really unhappy. Through the decisions that I made, I found myself evolving and growing up. It definitely helps to have the weird perspective of seeing yourself on TV. You learn what you like about yourself and what you need to change, too.

Interviewer: If you entered the show feeling heartbroken and lost, how were you able to survive that devastating ‘After the Rose’ episode?
Melissa Rycroft: I had three months at home before it aired, so I had time to recover from it. I was under contract, so there was nobody that I could talk to about it, not even my girlfriends or my parents. Seeing how I came out of that ordeal having to internalize all of it, from being happy to being in love to being engaged to being dumped to being heartbroken, and doing it all on my own, gave me confidence.

Interviewer: What would you say to your kids if they wanted to be on a reality show?
Melissa Rycroft: I would cringe, just like my parents did, but ultimately it’s their life so they could do it if they really wanted to.

Interviewer: After all that you’ve been through, what relationship advice would you give your daughter?
Melissa Rycroft: I want my daughter to be the girl that no guy can get because she doesn’t want any of them. I want her to be independent and confident. I was not confident. I took validation if somebody wanted to be with me. That’s why I couldn’t find love until I had confidence.

Interviewer: Last Q before we let you go: What’s something about you that would surprise others?
Melissa Rycroft: Since becoming a parent, I am afraid of everything. I don’t like swimming in oceans. I will never go skydiving. I’m terrified of planes. I told my husband, ‘Never book a hot air balloon ride. I’m not going.’ There are islands I’ll never visit because the planes to get there are the size of a pack of gum. I used to be the bravest person ever, and now I’m a big chicken!

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