Melissa Katherine Rycroft-Strickland (more commonly referred to as Melissa Rycroft, born March 11, 1983) is an American dancer, reality television personality, and former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. She 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. Rycroft went on to host reality-TV competition shows such as Bachelor Pad and Redneck Island.

Early life

Melissa Katherine Rycroft was born on March 11, 1983 in Dallas, Texas. She 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.

Career

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

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

The Bachelor

Rycroft 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. Shortly after the proposal, Mesnick left Rycroft, explaining he had feelings for Malaney. Mesnick and Malaney married in 2010.

Dancing with the Stars

Rycroft first competed on season eight of Dancing with the Stars where she was partnered with Tony Dovolani and finished in third place. She and Dovolani once again served as partners in the All-Stars season and were announced as the winners on the season finale. She later served as the host of the 2015 Dancing with the Stars live tour.

Dancing with the Stars Performances (Season 15)

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli
1	Foxtrot/ "Big Spender"	7.0	7.0	7.0	Safe
2	Jive / "Shout"	8.0	8.0	7.5	Safe
3	Samba / "Conga"	9.0	9.0	9.0	Safe
4	Jitterbug / "This Cat's On A Hot Tin Roof"	9.0	9.0	9.5* / 9.5	Safe
5	Tango / "Toxic" Team Freestyle (Shawn) / "Call Me Maybe"	9.0 9.5	9.0 10.0	9.0 10.0	No Elimination
6	Viennese Waltz / "Why Ya Wanna" Group Country Western / "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" & "I Play Chicken with a Train"	9.5 No	10.0 Scores	10.0 Given	Safe
7	Tango & Cha-Cha-Cha / "Die Young" Swing Marathon / "Do Your Thing"	10.0 Awarded	9.5 10	9.5 Points	No Elimination
8	Quickstep / "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" Paso Doble (Trio Challenge) / "Rumour Has It"	10.0 10.0	10.0 10.0	10.0 10.0	Safe
9	Hustle / "Walk the Dinosaur" Argentine Tango / Dirty Diana	9.0 10.0	9.5 10.0	9.0 10.0	Safe
10	Samba / "Conga" Freestyle / I Was Here Instant Samba / "Life Is A Highway"	10.0 10.0 9.5	10.0 10.0 9.5	10.0 10.0 9.5	Winners

Redneck Island

Rycroft is a host of CMT's reality-TV show Redneck Island.

Personal life

Rycroft had a seven-year relationship with a boy she met in school. It ended abruptly when he broke off with Rycroft while the pair were in college. The boy married another girl within 2 weeks of the ending of the relationship. Rycroft said she was inconsolable and this relationship was in part, the reason she would later describe herself as the girl who was always dumped when she auditioned for The Bachelor. In her book, My Reality, Rycroft described how Tye Strickland constantly broke off their relationship, dated other women, and generally took her for granted.

Rycroft was briefly engaged to Jason Mesnick, whom she met on The Bachelor. Mesnick called the engagement off after he admitted he was in love with runner-up, Molly Malaney. Rycroft then returned to a former boyfriend, salesman Tye Strickland. The couple married and have three children: daughter Ava Grace, born February 16, 2011 and sons Beckett Thomas, born April 20, 2014, and Cayson Jack, born May 18, 2016.

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