‘The Bachelorette’ Winner Devin Strader Faced a Restraining Order From an Ex Before Joining the Show

Seven years before his failed engagement to Jenn Tran, which sparked backlash among fans, The Bachelorette contestant Devin Strader faced an arrest and a restraining order from an ex.

Spoiler site Reality Steve first reported that in 2017 Strader was arrested on the charge that he burglarized his former girlfriend’s home. According to the affidavit published by the site and since reviewed by publications including Variety and Entertainment Weekly, Strader was charged on a single felony count of “simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling.” The ex-girlfriend alleged that on March 19, 2017, while she was out of town, her Louisiana apartment was broken into and a diamond necklace he had given her was stolen.

According to the affidavit, Strader’s ex also alleged that he had approached her house on multiple occasions, “banging on the door several times and screaming at her,” and that she had since filed a restraining order against him. “Later that evening, [Strader] made a fire out in the street with what appeared to be the actual restraining order,” the affidavit stated. “She also had a tire flattened in her vehicle and when it was getting changed, [Strader] came outside and began laughing at her.”

Strader subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of criminal trespass and simple criminal damage to property of less than $500, according to Entertainment Weekly, and received one year of unsupervised probation.

Reality Steve initially reported that the restraining order Strader’s ex took out against him was presumably sealed as he couldn’t find it, but the burglary arrest affidavit, which contains details about the restraining order, was public record. EW has since obtained the details of the protection order, in which the ex claims Strader “spit on me and threw his drink on me at Pelicans game in front of everyone in the crowd” as well as “put[ting] me in a chokehold covering my mouth.”

Vanity Fair has reached out to reps for Strader, ABC, and Warner Bros. for comment. A source close to the production tells VF: “We take the safety of our contestants very seriously and make every effort to conduct thorough diligence. As exhaustive as our vetting process is, this protective order did not surface in our searches.”

Amidst fallout from his split with Tran, who accused Strader of disconnecting from their engagement after The Bachelorette, her ex-fiancé courted even more controversy by posting what appeared to be hundreds of call logs and text messages between them to Instagram in the name of sharing his “truth.” Strader amended the initial post on Tuesday, September 10 to omit texts that were intimate in nature, then ultimately deleted the 13-minute video altogether.

The details of Strader’s past cast a shadow over a busy week for Bachelor Nation over at ABC. On Thursday, the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelorette premieres, while on Tuesday, Tran makes her debut as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars.

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