Jenn Tran's journey on 'The Bachelorette' ends in dramatic finale
She made history as the first Asian American to lead the franchise.
Jenn Tran's journey on "The Bachelorette" didn't end with a happily ever after.
The 26-year-old physician assistant student ended up proposing to Devin Strader in Hawaii because she wanted to "choose herself in this journey." She also had a ring for him.
But during the after the final rose ceremony, Tran said that after leaving Hawaii, he started pulling away.
"It's been a really hard couple of months," Tran said. "We had left Hawaii engaged, it was the happiest day of my life. I thought I had found who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
"All the promises he had made to me of wanting to move somewhere together and wanting to have this future planned out," she continued saying that his efforts were inconsistent and that he wasn't calling as much.
Tran said that they had a happy couple counseling appointment planned in August, but the night before their session, Tran said he broke off the engagement.
"He had basically said that he didn't love me anymore and didn't feel the same way and he felt like things were off the second he proposed," she said.
"He was making bold proclamations of love," she added. "Then suddenly the next day it was nothing."
What did Jenn tell Devin?
During the after the final rose ceremony, she came face to face with her ex for the first time in a month and shared how heartbroken she was, while also confronting him about why he broke off their engagement the way he did over a phone call.
She also questioned him about why after ending their engagement, he followed a former contestant on the previous season of "The Bachelor," Maria Georgas, on Instagram.
"It completely invalidated our entire relationship, everything we felt for each other," she told him.
Strader didn't have any response for her other than he was "regretfully late" in letting her know how he was feeling the entire time and that he "can't excuse" following Georgas on Instagram.
But Tran told him that he was "never fully in the engagement."
"I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, I wanted to have a family with you and you didn't see those things," she told him. "So don't sit here and try to tell me how I feel. Because you don't. You had one foot out the door the entire time."
What happened with Marcus?
The finale also saw Tran's heartbreaking goodbye to Marcus Shoberg, who struggled with opening up about his feelings.
While he did tell Tran, "I love you" in the end, it was too late and she ended up choosing herself.
"I opened my heart to you every second that I got and I think I got lost in it and maybe gave too much along the way," she said.
"I'm someone worth it and I know that I'm worth it. I'm done hinging my future on somebody feeling afraid to lose me, I'm done waiting for someone to get there," she added. "I'm just done. I genuinely had so much hope for us."
But when they reunited during the "After the Final Rose Ceremony," both of them had nothing but respect for each other.
"I still care about you deeply," Shoberg told Tran. "It's been an honor and a privilege to stand by you and to be a part of this journey. I would not have changed a thing or traded it for the world."
What did Jenn learn in the end?
While Tran's journey didn't end with a happily ever after, it ended with more strength in herself.
After seeing her proposal to Strader in Hawaii, Tran said that she was "proud of the woman who chose a man at the time who was giving her everything she ever wanted."
She added that she doesn't regret proposing to Strader, "but what happened was that man doesn't exist anymore."
"The truth of the matter is, I am the same woman I am," she continued. "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 love and understood what it meant to fully love somebody and go through the hard times, to go through the happy times, to go through every single obstacle in life with somebody, unwavering no matter what."
"And I'm still that same person because I have fought for this, every second that I could," Tran said. "I do know what I deserve and I know that that man -- somebody else will be that man for me."
Her last message to Strader was that she hopes he knows that the weight of his words matter.
"If you're gonna promise something, you should be able to fulfill those promises," she said. "When I love something I nurture it, I value it and I don't throw it away the next day."
Tran's season as the "Bachelorette" began in July where she was introduced to 25 suitors who were vying for her heart.
Ahead of her season, Tran, who is of Vietnamese heritage and made history as the first Asian American "Bachelorette" lead in the franchise, said that she was hoping to find "someone that I truly feel like is 100% my perfect match and someone that I'm compatible with."
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