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Devin Tells His Side After Jenn Breakup, Leaks Personal Texts Between Pair: 'I Wasn't Her First Choice'
7 hours ago
ABC
Just hours after dropping "my truth" in a 13-minute video, Bachelorette winner Devin Strader apologized for accidentally sharing too much in his attempt to get his side of the story out there after Bachelor Nation excoriated him over Jenn Tran phone breakup.
In his efforts to attempt to at least somewhat clear his name after he was disastrously received by Jenn Tran and all of Bachelor Nation on the live Bachelorette finale, Devin Strader may have gone too far.
On Tuesday, he dropped a 13-minute video where he set out to tell "my truth" about calling off his engagement with Jenn over the phone and all the disastrous details of how he checked out of their relationship immediately after the cameras stopped rolling and started DMing other women -- and even gave Maria Georgas a follow. In his message, he exposed a ton of alleged texts between him and Tran.
Well, in sharing his "truth," Devin apparently exposed more than even he was comfortable, prompting an apology just a few hours later on his Instagram Stories, per Us Weekly .
'Sensitive Information' Apology
"I deeply am so sorry for showing sensitive information from the bottom of my heart," Devin said in his apology. "That was not my intention."
The "sensitive information" came from text exchanges he showed, allegedly between him and Jenn, presumably shared without her permission.
"My only intention is to show the relationship from my perspective. I gain nothing from that text conversation being shown," he continued. "I promise you that was a mistake. I tried to censor all our personal/sensitive information, I honestly missed this one & f--ked up."
He acknowledged there are "no words" to make the situation "better," but he wanted to "ensure that there was no intent to show that text." He concluded his message, "I hope you can find in your hearts to forgive me."
He did not, however, specify which text he was referring to -- though he allegedly included some messages which were sexual in nature in the first version of the video. He pulled the original one down, re-uploading it with some of the messages removed.
The newer version of his "truth" video still remains online, though his apology does not.
Not Denouncing Jenn
In the footage, right away, Devin made sure to assure Bachelor Nation that nothing in his 13-minute video was meant to "denounce Jenn in any way" or "say anything negative about her." But, with the extremely negative reaction he's received since she tore into him on live TV, fans have been wanting something from him ... certainly more than he gave that night, or seemingly to Jenn since their mutual proposals in Hawai'i.
"I wanted to come on here and hopefully try to give a little more context into the situation due to the things being said about me," Devin explained. "All I'm going to do here is share my side, take accountability and apologize for some of the things that I wasn't able to say at [the finale]."
His argument is that his relationship with Jenn, like all relationships, is "two-way," arguing, "I think we can both be held accountable." At the same time, he conceded his intent was just to "clear up a few rumors and the false narrative" about him, while acknowledging he's not perfect.
It was at this point, he began to show texts allegedly between him and Jenn, including her "rooting" for him before the live finale, as well as exchanges he says defend him breaking up over the phone.
"She basically forces it out of me," he said in the video. "I did try to meet up with her. I did try to go to the 'happy couple' and she did not let me."
"Happy Couple" refers to established dates set up by producers for the winners between filming their season and the live reveal of who won.
Devin also pushed back at Jenn's claims that he resisted couples counseling, saying he'd scheduled "multiple appointments with her" and they'd even attended "a couple sessions together," while also seeing their respective individual counselors from the show.
"The reason I stopped going to couples counseling is due to the fact that Jenn fired our original therapist without consulting me about it," Devin claimed in his video. "I only had to find out through an email from our therapist saying that she’s sorry things couldn’t work out."
"I confronted Jenn about this, and she never even gave me an explanation," he continued. "All she could say was that she didn’t like her and that she wasn’t experienced enough."
This was a red flag for him, as he felt "invalidated" as a partner by being left out of this decision, leaving him feeling that "no matter what I was saying, what I was doing, my opinions on the matter, they were being completely tossed to the side."
Another point of contention was Jenn's assertion that he started pulling away the moment they left Hawai'i, with Devin saying he didn't pull away from her until weeks after their breakup. And that was only because he was trying to move on.
"As hard as that is to say, I needed that for my own happiness," he explained. At the same time, he did acknowledge he probably shouldn't have dropped a follow on Maria Georgas the morning after his breakup with Jenn.
Maria was a fellow contestant with Jenn for Joey Graziadei's season of The Bachelor and was widely considered the front-runner for Bachelorette, before she reportedly turned it down. Jenn even heard from man of her suitors that they'd expected it to be Maria instead of her.
As for why Devin presented himself the way he did during the finale, as Jenn tore into him, he said he was blindsided by her reaction as he thought they were actually on good terms.
"I had no idea what any of the conversation had been prior leading up to that point," he said of what happened before he came out. "Everything that we've spoken about post breakup has led me to believe that we were on good terms."
One of the hardest things for Devin, in terms with how he was feeling, was actually watching the show back and seeing how much more she appeared to feel for her eventual runner-up, Marcus Shoberg, than she did for him.
While Devin was lamenting that she had yet to say she loved him, Jenn had already expressed her love to Marcus and was lamenting that he was unable to reciprocate those feelings for her. As Devin saw it, "I had to clearly watch myself place second to someone else."
"I don't fault her for the feelings that she had towards Marcus," he said of Jenn's professed love, "but I wasn't informed of that even during our relationship." Instead, he said he was made aware during their breakup.
"I wasn't her first choice," he added, admitting that watching it play out led to some of his "calloused" behavior during the finale. "At that point in time, I felt like my feelings were reaffirmed in breaking up with her in the first place," he said of seeing her love story with Marcus.
After explaining his story, Devin insisted he was by no means attempting to "play the victim" here, but just trying to explain his side of the story. He also concluded with a direct apology to Jenn for causing her pain.
"As much as I care for Jenn, as much as I love Jenn, I really did feel like there was no other choice," he said of their breakup, but he feels it was the best decision for his own happiness.
To Jenn he said, "I really, really am sorry for the way things played out," he said. "My intentions were to never hurt you, and I’m sorry for that hurt that I’ve caused."
You can catch Jenn's side of the story, which she shared earlier in the day on Kaitlyn Bristowe's Off the Vine podcast, below:
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