Sam McKinney might have been named the villain of The Bachelorette Season 21, but in the end, Devin Strader took that title. During the jaw-dropping finale, Jenn Tran revealed that Devin had ended their engagement just a month before and said he broke up with her in a 15-minute phone call.
On September 10, Devin spoke out for the first time since After the Final Rose. In a 13-minute video he shared on Instagram (and then deleted before uploading a second video), Devin tried to “debunk” what had been said about him. Sam didn’t hesitate to respond to Devin’s video. He replied with a simple middle finger emoji to the original video.
Sam McKinney’s response to Devin Strader’s original video. (Instagram)
Devin started off by saying he wanted to “tell my side, take accountability, and apologize for some of the things that I wasn’t able to say at AFR. Disclaimer: Again, this is my truth, and by no means am I looking to denounce Jenn in any way. By no means am I looking to come at her in any way or say anything negative about her. All I’m trying to do here is show that this was a two-way relationship, and I think could both be held accountable.”
The freight company owner shared countless private text messages between him and Jenn in his first video. He showed a screenshot of their conversation prior to After the Final Rose where Jenn “basically sums up that even though things weren’t perfect between our relationship, she’ll always cherish and love between us, and no matter what happens, she’ll always be rooting for me. She specifically says, no matter how things play out on TV.”
Devin denounced that he dumped Jenn in a 15-minute phone call. Devin claimed he “really wanted to get to that happy couple and have that conversation with her in person.” Once again, he shared one of his texts from Jenn, from the morning of their breakup.
“As you can see, there are multiple different occasions where I do say that I really want to meet up in person to say this,” Devin said. “She basically forces it out of me. She says that I call her, which was not the case, at which point I did feel the need that I owed her that conversation. I did try to meet up with her. I did try to go to the happy couple, and she did not let me as saying that she didn’t deserve to go if it was just going to be a breakup. So I didn’t really know what else to do. She kind of forced my hand.”
He went on to admit that he was “stunned” and “shocked” over how their relationship was depicted on TV. “It was absolutely asinine, and it was really, really disheartening to hear the way Jenn described it because that wasn’t true,” Devin continued. “We both knew that that wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to fight with her. That wasn’t my intention. I never intended to go up there and bicker. I felt that was what she needed in the moment, and that was that. And honestly, it all boils back down to the fact that I didn’t feel like I would ever have to sit here and defend myself over facts that aren’t true about not only myself but our relationship as well because, once again, just one week prior to AFR, I got a text from Jenn saying that we are friends on good terms, and at no point did she want to get back together in the relationship.”
The 28-year-old recalled watching the show back and seeing himself “place second to someone else,” referring to Marcus Shoberg. He added, “I wasn’t her first choice.”
Devin did address following Maria Georgas on Instagram, which Jenn called him out for doing on After the Final Rose. He apologized for his “ill-advised decision.”
He followed up with, “I don’t know Maria. I’ve never met Maria. I’ve never met up with Maria, and I will never follow Maria. I know I heard Jenn now, and I’m not trying to excuse my behavior. I’m just here to apologize for that, so I am sorry.”
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