Bachelor On-Air Breakup Not Required

To add more fuel to the controversy that has flamed up over Bachelor's Jason Mesnick breaking up with his fiancee Melissa on-air—and choosing runner-up Molly as his beloved—the show's executive producer says the televised diss wasn't in the contract.

"I think he felt an obligation to the show, but there’s no contractual obligation there;  none," Mike Fleiss told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday.

However, Melissa wasn't totally in the dark when it came to Jason's feelings for her, as Fleiss says she had an inkling that things were coming to an end.

"They were on the phone every day. They were together and what happened. He had plenty of access to her, but it just wasn’t working out for them," Fleiss explains. "She didn’t know it was about Molly. I think that was the thing that caught her off-guard.

As for why Jason chose to do the deed on TV instead of in private, Fleiss says it was a natural decision.

"It’s a TV show and that was really the defining moment of this series. To not put them on TV seems strange, considering we are making a TV show and these people signed up to do a TV show," he says. "We try to tell a complete story, and to have that go on and not let the viewers be part of it would have been a mistake."

We're sure that makes Melissa feel a lot better.