He desreved it, but I felt it would have been much more interesting if he had actually changed and regretted what he did. Like he has this cross he has to bear with him for the rest of his life that he bullied a girl out of school, and he has to keep it secret because if the rest of the people find out, his reputation would have been ruined, so he tries to move on with other women
I personally think that could have been an interesting subplot in and of itself, kinda paralleling her struggle of ostracization and disguising her ugliness with his internal "ugliness" and both of them learning to move past it.
That said, this was worth it for the George of the Jungle moment.