In a dramatic conclusion to “The Bachelorette” Season 21 finale, Jenn Tran, 26, faced off with her ex-fiancé, Devin Strader, 28, during the highly anticipated “After the Final Rose” special on Tuesday night. The confrontation marked their first meeting since Strader abruptly ended their engagement just one month prior with a 15-minute phone call.
ABC
Tran was visibly emotional and did not hold back as she called out to Strader for his actions following their breakup. She particularly criticized him for following “The Bachelor” alum Maria Georgas on Instagram the day after their split. “What I can’t understand is everything that you did after we broke off our engagement,” Tran said, questioning Strader’s intentions. “Why you would do something like that? Because it completely invalidated our entire relationship, everything that I had felt for you, everything that we’d felt for each other.”
Tran and Georgas, 30, were both contestants on Joey Graziadei’s “The Bachelor” season,” which aired earlier this year. Georgas, who finished in fourth place, revealed on the “Call Her Daddy“ podcast that she turned down the opportunity to become the next “Bachelorette.” The role” ultimately went to Tran, making her the first Asian-American lead in the show’s history.
During the tense exchange, Strader acknowledged his shortcomings, telling Tran, “Obviously I failed you. And there’s nothing I can say other than that. But everything I felt for you was real.”
Tran, however, was not appeased. She delivered a powerful message to her former fiancé: “I hope that you learn that the weight of your words matters and that if you’re going to promise something, you should be able to fulfill those promises. I simply couldn’t have done what you have done in that position. And when I love something, I nurture it and value it, and I don’t throw it away the next day.”
The confrontation intensified as Tran accused Strader of clubbing in New York City with castmate Jeremy Simon just hours after ending their engagement. Defending himself, Strader asked, “Am I not allowed to live a life?“ before admitting that he had “fallen short“ of Tran’s expectations, particularly in not “fighting“ for their relationship.
Tran passionately described the kind of commitment she was ready to offer, saying, “The woman that stood there was ready to fight for love, was ready to give everything into a person, was ready to start a family, was ready to be loved and understood what it meant to fully love somebody, to go through the hard times, to go through the happy times, to go through every single obstacle in life with somebody unwaveringly no matter what.”
Tran made history as the first “Bachelorette“ lead to propose to her season’s winner, rather than the traditional format where the final pick proposes to the lead. However, the engagement was short-lived.
During the “After the Final Rose“ unique, Tran broke down in tears as producers forced her to relive the proposal and discuss the breakup with host Jesse Palmer and the audience. “He’d basically said that he didn’t love me anymore and didn’t feel the same way and felt like something had been off since the second that he proposed. He regretted getting engaged,“ Tran revealed, bringing the emotional episode to a close.