As fans are well aware, the most recent season of The Bachelorette ended in shock and heartbreak when lead Jenn Tran tearfully explained that the eligible bachelor she ultimately chose – Devin Strader – callously broke her heart the moment they left Hawaii.
Reality TV usually boasts its share of “bad guys,” and Devin’s demeanor during the tense final hour of a three-hour finale did nothing to sway fans to his side.
This was not your average reality television change of heart, either — between Devin crushing Jenn’s heart and Bachelorette producers essentially forcing Jenn to relive it all on national television, the finale went over so poorly that fans clamored to “cancel the whole franchise.”
The backlash was intense and immediate, and unlike Jenn’s brother James Tran – who called the whole ordeal “needlessly cruel,” and was in turn deemed the only good guy in the finale – Devin was unequivocally hated.
In the days after the finale, Bachelor Nation analyzed Devin’s time on The Bachelorette, with some surmising that he intentionally “love bombed” Jenn, perhaps with the intent of coming in second and landing his own spot as the next lead.
Jenn was embraced by Bachelorette fans, and right after the finale, she was announced as part of the cast of Season 33 of Dancing With The Stars.
Fans didn’t really hear from Devin, while Jenn traversed the morning show circuit and looked ahead to DWTS.
On September 11, more than a week after the disastrous Bachelorette finale, Devin uploaded a 13-minute-long reel to Instagram, ostensibly to offer his side of the story.
Despite their continued disdain for Devin, fans listened — and their reaction to his attempt to salvage his reputation could best be described as “oof,” “yikes,” and “that should have stayed in the drafts.”
Devin’s Deleted Reel Exposed Private Texts With Jenn
On September 11, Devin uploaded the Reel in question, which he later deleted — in large part because his disclosure of private conversations without Jenn’s consent alone made him look awful.
There’s an old saying that “the internet never forgets,” and although Devin deleted the long video when it was not well received, at least one screen recording of the clip in its entirety was uploaded to YouTube:
Devin kicks off the clip by claiming he wanted to provide “his side” of the story, address rumors, and “take accountability,” though he didn’t elaborate on the last point.
Just over two minutes into the clip, which extensively depicts what looks like months of text messages with Jenn, Devin highlighted a section about the way he handled their breakup.
In that portion of the video, he squarely blames Jenn for how their relationship ended:
I didn’t really know what else to do.
[Jenn] kind of forced my hand.
At 3:17, Devin revealed a tense text exchange with Jenn.
He continued justifying how he behaved, while also maintaining that her feelings for him were one-sided:
“It felt like I was leading her on. I felt guilty, because in her mind, it felt like she was holding on to something that wasn’t there for me.”
From there, he said he wanted to address “Jenn’s false claims” that he began pulling away after they left Hawaii, later complaining about a lot of “chattering from Jenn.”
Throughout the video, Devin made a lot of contradictory claims, swinging between feigning regret and leveling accusations against Jenn.
Devin initially claimed he felt like he was leading Jenn on and that he felt guilt over it.
But closer to the end of the video, there was a “which is it” moment, when he asserted the breakup occurred in part because he was Jenn’s “second choice”:
“Being on the show and re-watching the episodes back is something that most people, probably a lot of people, will not and can never understand.
“Um, I wasn’t her first choice. I had to clearly watch myself play second to someone else, and that’s okay. We moved on from that. I wasn’t her first choice.”
Per Devin, watching Jenn with runner-up Marcus influenced his decision in some way.
But despite his repeated insistence that the timeline made him look bad, his clarifying statements clarified nothing.
Immediately after he accused Jenn of concealing her relationship with Marcus – which is literally a function of how the show works – Devin shifted gears and continued:
“At that point in time [after re-watching Jenn and Marcus], I felt like my decisions were re-affirmed in [stammers] in breaking up with her in the first place …
“So yeah, maybe I was a bit more callous leading up to, um, the last couple weeks towards [After The Final Rose], but it wasn’t intentional. It wasn’t, you know, something that I felt like I was doing out of malice, you know?
“It was just an important thing that I felt I needed, which was space.”
Thankfully, there wasn’t much more to Devin’s lengthy tirade.
But perplexingly, he concluded the video with a message directed at Jenn, one which again basically contradicted half of what he said:
And to Jenn, I really, really am sorry for the way things played out. My intentions were to never hurt you, and I’m sorry for that hurt.
Even in an attempted apology, Devin didn’t apologize for his actions — he apologized for “that hurt.”
Jenn appeared on the podcast The Viall Files, and expressed horror that Devin shared their private text messages:
“I felt so betrayed, so disrespected and, honestly, just upset and disappointed.”
However, Jenn also said she refused to watch Devin’s video, stating that he “wasted” six months of her life, and she didn’t want to spare him “another second” of her time.