The Abuse Allegations Against ‘The Bachelorette’ Winner Devin Strader, Explained

Devin Strader is now contending with much more serious allegations than his recent Bachelorette controversy.

On September 16, noted Bachelor Nation blogger Reality Steve took to YouTube to share allegations that Strader had burglarized a former college girlfriend’s apartment back in 2017, breaking a restraining order against him. Though Reality Steve noted the restraining order was sealed, he published what appears to be an affidavit from an arrest warrant for Strader, along with other documents he claims are public record.

Just a few days later, The Hollywood Reporter obtained an unsealed petition from the ex-girlfriend, revealing even more terrifying allegations. Here’s everything we know.

Who is Devin Strader?

Strader is the controversial winner of the last season of The Bachelorette. Though Strader accepted Jenn Tran’s proposal during the finale, the 28-year-old broke up with Tran over the phone before the After the Final Rose ceremony. Following backlash for his behavior towards Tran, the entrepreneur attempted to defend himself in a since-deleted Instagram video, which included several screenshots of the former couple’s text messages.

After deleting the video, he re-uploaded a redacted version and apologized for sharing the messages. “I deeply am so sorry for showing sensitive information from the bottom of my heart,” he wrote in an Instagram Story on September 10, per E! News. “That was not my intention. My only intention is to show the relationship from my perspective.”

Tran herself responded to the videos on the Viall Files podcast, saying she felt “betrayed” and “disrespected” by the “invasion of privacy.”

What are the allegations from 2017?

Let’s start with the unsealed petition from his ex-girlfriend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ex-girlfriend—whom he dated during college—filed a restraining order against Strader in 2017, accusing him of physical, verbal, and mental abuse. “He has degraded me and taken everything from me,” she wrote in the petition, per THR. “My self confidence, self-esteem, and I hope no other girl ever has to go through what I went through.”

Here is a particularly terrifying excerpt from the THR article:

“She alleged that Strader once ‘put me in a choke hold covering my mouth’ and ‘spit on me and threw his drink on me at [a] Pelicans game in front of everyone in the stands.’ And after she awoke to bruises on her ‘knees, elbow, stomach, arms’ and a ‘pounding’ head, she claims he said he almost ‘killed’ her and didn’t ‘want to talk about it.’”

What happened next? According to an alleged affidavit shared by Reality Steve, Strader was accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, stealing a necklace he’d bought for her while they were still dating, and setting fire to her restraining order outside the apartment.

The officer that responded to the call noted “there was a jewelry box that had been gone through, a broken bottle of perfume, a makeup tray was dumped out,” per the affidavit, reportedly written by Baton Rouge Police Department officer Reese Jenkins. The document continued, “A diamond necklace was stolen during the burglary. The necklace that was taken had been one that the defendant had bought when they were still dating.”