April 09, 2021 • bachelor insider
Melissa Rycroft Wishes Husband Tye Strickland a Happy Birthday in Sweet Tribute: '40 Looks Good on You'
A major milestone! Melissa Rycroft commemorated husband Tye Strickland’s 40th birthday on Friday with a touching Instagram tribute.
“Happiest of birthdays to my best friend!!!” the Bachelor Nation star wrote alongside a video slideshow featuring sweet memories from the couple’s relationship. “40 looks good on you, babe!”
Tye has been a part of Melissa’s life for a long time — even before fans got to know her on Season 13 of “The Bachelor” in 2008. The pair had dated just before Melissa left her hometown of Dallas, Texas, for the Bachelor Mansion in Los Angeles to compete for Jason Mesnick’s heart.
“Tye tried to call me, like, right as I got back in the country from filming, he was calling,” Melissa told Us Weekly in an August 2020 interview, explaining that he wanted her back. “I didn’t believe [him].”
At the time, Melissa was engaged, as Jason ultimately handed her his final rose during the 2009 finale. But, as Bachelor Nation will recall, Jason called it quits with Melissa to reunite with runner-up Molly Mesnick (née Malaney). After the split, Melissa reconnected with Tye.
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“And then I just started talking to him again as a friend. And three, four weeks after that, we officially got back together under the stipulation that I said, ‘This time, it’s for good,’ you know,” she recalled to the outlet. “He was a hard relationship to get over, which is why I even went on the show and I had just gone through everything with Jason and I was, like, I don’t know if [I was] emotionally prepared to really get into a relationship again, but it was with Tye, it was the guy that I had wanted to be with before all of this happened.”
Melissa and Tye wed in December 2009 and went on to welcome three kids: Ava, 10, Beckett, 6, and Cayson, 4. Later, the former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and the handsome insurance agent starred on their own CMT reality series, titled “Melissa & Tye,” which ran for one season in 2012. These days, they co-host a podcast called “Logically Irrational.”
(Meanwhile, Jason and Molly got married in 2010 and share daughter Riley, 8.)
“I think having the show air, we weren’t really allowed to see each other, you know, so we just got to talk and focus on our friendship,” Melissa told Us Weekly, explaining how “The Bachelor” improved her connection with Tye. “And I think that’s what made the relationship the second time around that much stronger.”
