‘Bachelorette’ Host Jesse Palmer Says He Was ‘Heartbroken’ for Jenn Tran During the Live Finale

Jesse Palmer watched Jenn Tran and Devin Strader’s relationship play out on season 21 of The Bachelorette before it quickly crumbled. After the leading lady revealed that Devin ended their engagement shortly after filming during After the Final Rose, The Bachelorette host reacted to the way Jenn’s season ended.

“When I found out, I felt a lot of emotions. I was sad. I was heartbroken for Jenn,” Jesse, 45, told Entertainment Weekly published on Thursday, September 5. “I was confused. I never anticipated this happening considering everything that I saw happen between the two of them in Hawaii.”

Emotions were high during The Bachelorette live finale. Unlike anything that’s ever happened before, Jenn, 26, didn’t accept a proposal from her final suitor Devin, 28. Instead, she popped the big question herself. After the happy moment played for the audience at home and in the studio, Jenn took the stage and announced that Devin called off their engagement shortly after filming wrapped.

“People in the audience were shocked, as I’m sure people were at home watching,” Jesse revealed to the outlet. “We had never seen Jenn so emotional, and as difficult as that must have been for her to recount, she showed incredible strength and bravery.”

Jenn’s journey as the Bachelorette came with a lot of hardships, despite the fact that she was the first Asian-American lead on the franchise. While she was filming the show, The Bachelor alum fan-favorite Maria Georgas revealed that she was actually the first pick as lead after they both comPeted for Joey Graziadei’s heart on season 28 of The Bachelor.

“It was set in stone. I was it,” Maria, 30, confirmed on the May 1 date episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. But Maria said she backed out of the offer when she realized it wasn’t making her happy. Jenn claimed that wasn’t the truth when she went on the same podcast two months later.

The Bachelorette's Jenn Tran and Devin Strader's Relationship Timeline

That said, Maria got brought up multiple times during Jenn’s season of The Bachelorette. Not only did contestant Sam McKinney admit that he believed Maria or their fellow season 28 contestant Daisy Kent would be the lead when joining the show, but Devin followed Maria on Instagram one day after he broke up with Jenn.

“Not only other girls, but Maria,” Jenn told Devin during After the Final Rose live finale. “Not only is that so disrespectful to anything we shared together, I just don’t understand why you would do something like that.”

During Jenn and Devin’s oncamera reunion, she revealed that she tried to have a conversation with her ex-fiancé in private but he didn’t take up the offer. Devin didn’t defend his actions. However, Maria addressed the incident via TikTok on Thursday, September, 5, and shared that she did not and will never follow him back.

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After the physician assistant aired out Devin’s suspect behavior, more women stepped forward and shared claims about him.

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“Within the past week, I heard from a really good friend who said that Devin had slid into her DMs,” Bachelor Nation’s Ashley Iaconetti told her “Almost Famous” podcast cohost, Ben Higgins, during the Wednesday, September 4, episode.

After revealing that the mystery woman was not a part of the franchise, Ashley, 36, said, “This girl followed him, just because she’s been a fan of him from the show, liked his personality.”

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Just one day later, Devin was seemingly spotted with a second mystery woman weeks before filming After the Final Rose. On Thursday, September 5, Instagram account @Bachelornationscoop shared a video of what seemed to be Devin with a female at a rooftop bar.

“The video is from August 23, after he broke up with Jenn,” the account creator wrote in the comment section of the post.