Fans are furious that “The Bachelorette’s” Jenn Tran was forced to watch her proposal to Devin Strader on live television Tuesday night nearly one month after he ended their engagement in a 15-minute phone call and allegedly ghosted her.
In a move that’s never happened in “The Bachelorette” franchise before, Tran made history by becoming the first leading lady to propose to her season’s winner as opposed to her final pick asking for her hand in marriage — but their engagement didn’t last long.
In the live finale, host Jesse Palmer brought Tran on stage to tearfully reveal they broke up over a month ago and before producers aired the proposal they had Tran explain what went wrong.
“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 told the audience in between sobs.
Tran accused Strader of spending the past month ignoring her texts and “ghosting” her.
“He didn’t want to go to couples counseling,” the reality television star said. “He didn’t want to fight for the relationship anymore. He was just done.”
Palmer invited the 28-year-old freight company owner to the stage as she accused him of “clubbing” and following new girls on Instagram like former “Bachelor” contestant Maria Georgas. Maria told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in April she rejected the leading role of “The Bachelorette” before they offered it to Tran.
“It completely invalidated our entire relationship,” the first Asian-American “Bachelorette” told Strader.
“I failed you and there’s nothing that I can say other than that you know but everything I felt was real,” he responded.
Strader said he had “a lot of doubts” about their relationship when he left the show and that he was “not able to live up” to the things Tran needed — but didn’t give specifics as to what exactly her expectations were.
Palmer asked Tran, 26, if she was ready to see the proposal and she replied: “Do I have a choice?”
As the proposal aired, cameras showed a livestream of Tran on the lower part of the screen bawling right next to Strader as she proposed to her former partner.
Social media users ripped the show’s producers for making her relive the emotional moment on live television.
“Why is the show making Jenn watch this proposal while sitting next to Devin? This for real seems cruel,” one social media user wrote on X.
“She was already humiliated by Devin and then the show humiliated her some more by making her watch the proposal,” another person wrote on Reddit.
As Jenn sobbed during the live taping, the show continued to air the clip from the proposal of her saying, “I can’t let you propose to me. I’ve decided to choose myself in this journey and the best version of myself is when I’m with you” before she pulled out a ring and put it on Strader’s finger.
He also proposed to her seconds later.
Cameras cut back to Tran still crying and sniffling and the former couple sitting in silence.
Palmer urged her to “feel empowered” from that moment and told her “even though you may not have found the love and that great love that you were looking for yet, you also showed all of us what a strong and powerful woman is.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
