The winner of Jenn Tran’s season of The Bachelorette — who ended their engagement over the phone after winning her heart, before sharing intimate texts in an attempt to reframe the story — has a past.
Everyone has a past. But in the case of reality shows like The Bachelorette, it’s pretty important that those pasts can be vetted. Unfortunately for Jenn Tran, it looks like that wasn’t possible in the case of her eventual winner and quickly ex-fiancé, Devin Strader
According to a new report by RealitySteve — a well-known expert on the franchise — legal documents from his past were recently unsealed, including a restraining order taken out against him by an ex-girlfriend.
Those documents were sealed, according to The Hollywood Reporter, when producers were digging into his background ahead of the show’s filming cycle.
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As it turns out, per these court documents, Strader was arrested seven years before he met Tran on a felony count of “simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling.” Said dwelling reportedly belonged to an ex-girlfriend of his at the time in Louisiana.
She also reportedly had a restraining order on file against him; they lived two doors from one another.
Allegations of Verbal, Physical Abuse
The 2017 affidavit filed by the Baton Rouge Police Department by the unnamed girlfriend alleges that Strader broke into her home while she was away on a trip.
The woman alleges that she returned to find evidence of a burglary, with many items broken and strewn about. Additionally, she reported to police that a diamond necklace Strader had given her while they were dating was missing.
The affidavit further details allegations that Strader had come to her house multiple times “banging on the door” and “screaming at her.” It was this alleged behavior the woman says led to her filing the restraining order.
In response to her filing, the woman claims, per the affidavit, that Strader “made a fire out in the street with what appeared to be the actual restraining order.” She also details an alleged incident when she “had a tire flattened in her vehicle,” and while it was being changed, Strader reportedly “came outside and began laughing at her.”
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The allegations don’t stop there, per the now-unsealed restraining order, as seen by THR, with the woman further alleging Strader once “put me in a choke hold covering my mouth” and “spit on me and threw his drink on me” at a public professional sporting event.
She reported waking up the following day with bruises on her knees, elbows, stomach, arms, and her head “pounding.” She claimed he almost “killed” her and told her he didn’t “want to talk about it.”
Additionally, the woman claims Strader “verbally and mentally abused” her during their relationship. She told police, “He has degraded me and taken everything from me. My self confidence, self-esteem, and I hope no other girl ever has to go through what I went through.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, Strader pleaded guilty to the charges of criminal trespass and simple criminal damage to property of less than $500. For this, he received one year of unsupervised probation.
“We take the safety of our contestants very seriously and make every effort to conduct thorough diligence,” a source close to the show told THR. “As exhaustive as our vetting process is, this protective order did not surface in our searches.”
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Devin’s Recent Attempt to Clear Name
Even without the resurfaced historic allegations against Devin Strader by an ex-girlfriend in her 2017 restraining order, the winner of the most recent cycle of The Bachelorette had already firmly established himself in the eyes of Bachelor Nation as a villain.
He made matters infinitely worse in an attempt to clear his name, or share his “truth,” by exposing possibly hundreds of private and at times intimate messages between himself and ex-fiancée Jenn Tran.
This went down in a 13-minute video he edited once to remove some intimacy he said was left in there by accident — before ultimately deleting it altogether when the whole plan backfired spectacularly, making him look even worser.
In reaction to the leaks of their private messages, Tran told Nick Viall on The Viall Files she “truthfully felt so betrayed, so disrespected, and honestly just upset and disappointed” by “such an invasion of privacy.”
While she had no problem with Devin wanting to come out and tell his side of the story, she does have a problem with him doing it by sharing their private conversations and “invading my privacy” — especially without even giving her the courtesy of a heads up.
“At this point, I want to be done. And I want to put this in the past,” Jenn said about the leaked texts. She also said this would be the last time she speaks about her breakup with Devin.
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Bachelorette Breakup
After winning Tran’s heart over her emotionally unavailable runner-up Marcus Shoberg, Strader quickly called off the engagement even before the live finale just a few short weeks ago.
During the live finale, Devin didn’t say much when confronted with Tran, while she accused him of breaking up with her over the phone — he claims she pushed him to do it — and of reaching out to other women, including following almost-Bachelorette Maria Georgas one day after their breakup.
In his since-deleted video, Devin noted that it was hard watching the show back and seeing that he was placing second in her heart. “I wasn’t her first choice,” he said in his video, while emphasizing he doesn’t blame Jenn for her feelings. He also said his intention was not to “denounce Jenn in any way” or “say anything negative about her.”
You cand find out all about what he had to say here:
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Meanwhile, Jenn assured Bachelor Nation it was her idea to have Devin sit there uncomfortably while watching their franchise-first double proposal, in hopes he might start to understand why him being disingenuous with his feelings was so hurtful to her.
Speaking on former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Off the Vine podcast, Jenn also set the record straight about that Maria name-drop, clarifying she was never intending to claim that Maria had any involvement in anything — a point Maria echoed in her own response TikTok.
“I personally don’t think anything happened with Devin and Maria,” she clarified on Off the Vine Tuesday. “I think he was being a bit of a jackass and went and followed her for whatever reason and that’s fine. I don’t think anything happened and I never insinuated that.”
“I didn’t want to have her be a part of this narrative because I know that there’s not more to it,” Jenn said. “That was a hurtful thing for him to do. That was his action and his thing. I don’t think she did anything.”
You can find out everything Jenn had to say about Maria, Devin, and where things stand with second runner-up Jonathan Johnson — who was notably in the audience supporting her when she made her Dancing with the Stars debut Tuesday night — right here:
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