TV Watch

Bachelor Jason Talks About Withholding the Final Rose

01/27/2009 at 12:00 AM EST

Jason Mesnick talks about the fourth episode of The Bachelor, where he was serenaded, got ready for his close-up and withheld the evening’s final rose.

No woman has ever written me a love song, so I liked seeing who could really have fun with it. I know firsthand how nerve-wracking that can be. But thankfully, the best path to my heart is through humor; I mean how serious can you be when you only have 30 minutes to write a love song with cameras covering you?

My date with Molly was a blast. I’m not sure everyone understands her love for fast food, but we spent the first part of the night decorating our own fast-food wrappers; it was right up her alley. You should know that even though Molly and I camped out, it was so innocent. We spent the entire night talking. And as for her wearing my clothes home, it was really just out of convenience. She certainly wasn’t trying to make anyone uncomfortable. The best part of the group dates is seeing how the girls interact with and treat each other. It’s so important to me that the person I am with gets along with . Even though this is a very unique way of meeting someone, you still need to treat everyone with respect. If you can’t do it here, you definitely won’t do it in your real life.



The toughest thing about group dates is making sure you are paying equal attention to everyone. I wanted everyone to know that I was giving myself an open opportunity to get to know them and them to know me. But it’s not easy when you have so many on a date.

Let me say I am the furthest thing from an actor. (In all honesty, I just had to look up what SAG (Screen Actors Guild) is). In fact, I think last night proved that I might be the worst actor of all time! There was no prep for the kissing scenes at the General Hospital set. I had to just had to roll with it, and use a lot of breath mints!

It's very easy for me to empathize with the women as they are feeling different emotions. I’ve been in their shoes, and I try to help as much as I can. Years ago, I even considered becoming a therapist. The person I end up with needs to be both my friend and my lover.

The two-on-one date was one of the most difficult dates -- period. I wish you could have been in my head that night. Both girls are incredible, and I truly wanted to keep seeing both of them and hated having to break one heart to keep another.

The rose ceremonies get tougher each week as emotions grow stronger. This one was different because I made the decision to not give out the final rose. In my heart, I realized that I would not be with Shannon, Megan or Lauren forever. I could not give out the final rose because I felt like I would have not been living the truth. It would have just been leading one of them on and that is not something I was ever going to do.

Craig Sjodin/ABC