Jenn Tran Was in Love With Someone Else, Suitor Says

Heavy/ABC Jenn Tran.

Jenn Tran’s ex Devin Strader says he was her backup choice on “The Bachelorette.”

One week after their breakup played out on the “After the Final Rose” special, Strader posted a 13-minute Instagram video in which he shared screenshots of hundreds of his text messages with Tran to show his side of their split story.

Not only did Strader deny Tran’s “false claims” that he distanced himself from her the minute they stopped filming the ABC dating show, but he also claimed his former fiancée was in love with her runner-up suitor, Marcus Shoberg.

“Disclaimer, this is my truth,” Strader said in his now-deleted video. “By no means am I looking to denounce Jenn in any way or come at her in any way.”

After sharing text messages to prove that he tried to communicate his feelings to Tran, Strader told viewers he wanted “give a little bit more context” to their broken engagement.

“I had to clearly watch myself place second to someone else. I wasn’t her first choice,” he claimed, hinting that Tran had really been in love with Shoberg.

Strader clarified, “I don’t fault her for the feelings she had toward Marcus. But I wasn’t informed of that even during our relationship. I was only made aware of that during the decision to communicate less post breakup.”

“At that point in time, I felt like my feelings were reaffirmed in breaking up with her in the first place” he added. Strader admitted it may have made him “a little more callous” in the weeks leading up to “After The Final Rose.”

Strader also clarified that he was “not trying to play the victim.” “As much as I care for Jenn, as much as I love Jenn, I really did feel like there was no other choice,” he added of their split.

Devin Strader Posted a Text Message That He Claimed Was From Jenn Apologizing For How Her Romance With Marcus Looked on TV

ABCJenn Tran and Marcus Shoberg.

Shoberg struggled with showing his feelings for Tran, even after she told him she was in love with him. Tran expressed concern about how much she was “investing” into him for him to still be unsure of his feelings. Shoberg finally said “I love you” to her on “The Bachelor” finale. He added, “I don’t want to give up on us.”

But it was too late for Tran. “My entire life I’ve been pouring into people and wishing they would give me the love that I wanted so badly,” she said in a confessional. “I’m finally letting go of a part of me I’ve been holding onto for so long.”

In his Instagram tell-all, Strader posted a screenshot of a text he claimed was from Tran after her romantic scenes with Shoberg aired.

“I feel responsible for not thinking how this is going to look on screen for you to watch back. And I’m sorry that in the moment I wasn’t thinking of you,” the text read. “Like I know it doesn’t matter anymore but I’m very sorry for not being more considerate in those last weeks. I hate the way they edited the last couple of episodes because I felt I said a lot more and tried to reassure you a lot more, but I feel they didn’t include it. But I’m sorry that my actions made you look a certain way and for the way it’s all portrayed. You never you were never my backup option. You just scared me with how confident you were. It didn’t make sense to me, and it scared me how openly you had loved me on the show.”

On AFR, Tran said even if Shoberg had told her he loved her sooner, it wouldn’t have changed anything. “I think my heart was just in a different place and wanted something different,” she said. “But it is confusing to try to navigate it all. I don’t think that it necessarily would’ve changed anything.”

Jenn Tran Was Broken-Hearted by Her Breakup From Strader

ABCJesse Palmer, Jenn Tran, and Devin Strader.

Tran appeared to be devastated by her split from Strader.  On AFR, she broke down in tears as she recounted the breakup. She told host Jesse Palmer that Strader “basically said he didn’t love [her] anymore and didn’t feel the same way.”  “It wasn’t what he wanted anymore,” she said, adding that he “regretted” getting engaged. “

Tran posted a TikTok a few days after the episode aired and revealed that she dedicated a Taylor Swift song to each episode of her season. The clip was set to Swift’s song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” “Disclaimer: This was filmed a while ago,” she captioned the clip in reference to her split from Strader.

She also joked that maybe she could use the Swift song for her debut dance on “Dancing With the Stars.”