Devin Strader has revealed that he was "very surprised" by how quickly he fell in love with Jenn Tran on The Bachelorette.

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"I was very surprised [by how fast I fell in love]," Devin told Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt during a recent episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.

"I was very, very surprised. I didn't come into the show fully knowledgeable of how it worked."

Devin commended The Bachelorette for putting him in situations that made him "really reflect" on what he wants out of life.

"All of the filler conversations go away, right? You really have to cut down to the meat and potatoes of who you are and your essence, and it really helped me open those walls for [Jenn] to see who I was, and it was great," Devin explained.

Devin therefore pointed out how it's "100 percent possible to" find true love on The Bachelor franchise, in his opinion.

One of Devin's employees -- who is also the wife of his best friend -- filled out an application for Devin and nominated him to be on The Bachelorette's 21st season.

Devin therefore admitted on "Bachelor Happy Hour" that he was "nervous" to appear on the show.

"There were cameras everywhere. I had never seen the show before, so I had relatively little knowledge of what I was even supposed to be doing there, other than obviously getting to know [the star]," Devin recalled of his Night 1 experience.

"I just wanted to go and meet a genuine person who could possibly like me for who I am, and it was
nice to kind of go in blind."

Devin admitted he set his expectations low, revealing, "I didn't know if she was into me, and I didn't know on Night 1 if I was going to be there into the next week, but for me, it was all about the experience."

As Devin was finding his footing in The Bachelorette process, he butted heads with several of the other guys and became the center of drama.

Devin was called selfish, arrogant and disrespectful in how he pursued Jenn, and he had feuds with Aaron Erb, Sam McKinney and Thomas Nguyen. Sam, in particular, had the biggest issue with Devin.

"I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't stressed out with all of the stuff that was going on," Devin noted.

But Devin, feeling comfortable in his own skin, slowly settled into the process. He said the stress he had been feeling melted away when he finally got to enjoy a spiritual and relaxing one-on-one date with Jenn in New Zealand.

"To have this cut-away moment with Jenn was fantastic, and she was very, very open and receptive to how vulnerable I was getting," Devin recalled.

"To be able to talk about my life experiences and my family, it helped me bond closer to her because I feel like we had a lot of small discussions, but I wanted to get to the real ones."

Devin said it was a "beautiful day" with the Maori people, and he joked, "I left the 'villain' of me in that temple in New Zealand because when I walked out of that place, I felt like a new man. It was great."

Devin said he liked Jenn "a lot" at that point and couldn't wait to share more personal details about himself with The Bachelorette star.

"I had been feeling a certain type of way about [Jenn], I think, a week leading up to that, especially with how she validated me with the group-date rose. She was so warm and open to me then," Devin shared.

"There were a lot of things she had been doing for me without even realizing that they made me feel strongly about her. So going into the night portion of our date, it was monumental for me, in my mind."

Devin said when he opened up to Jenn during the night portion of their solo date, they had "so many bonding moments" in which they realized they had similar upbringings as well as family ties or lack thereof.

"We did not have it easy, and that was all of the reassurance I needed to let her know that I was falling for her," Devin explained.

Devin eventually earned one of four roses on The Bachelorette's latest episode, and so Jenn will be visiting his hometown during the next August 19 broadcast.

Devin will have to face off against Jeremy Simon, Jonathon Johnson and Marcus Shoberg for Jenn's final rose.

Jenn seemed to hint at the identity of her The Bachelorette winner during her own appearance on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.

Click here to find out what Jenn had said, and click here to read The Bachelorette spoilers for the rest of Season 21 -- including Jenn's reported runner-up and if she got engaged to her winner.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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