The Bachelorette bachelor Devin Strader has revealed if he really hates Sam McKinney and if he thinks there's any chance to salvage his relationships with Sam M. and Aaron Erb.
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"And I still don't. 'Hate' is a very strong word. It's like, at what point am I going to keep trying to pour effort into something I know I'm not going to get the results out of, you know?"
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Devin apparently feels helpless when it comes to his feud with Sam.
"I know that Sam's not going to like me, for whatever reason, and at this point, he hasn't even discussed these things with me," Devin admitted to the podcast's co-hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.
"I don't even know why he doesn't like me. I have no inclination of this other than maybe that I pissed off a couple of his buddies, like Aaron and [Thomas Nguyen]. I have no reasoning as to why he thinks of me the way he thinks of me."
Devin confirmed he and Sam "do not like each other" but there is no hate there, at least on Devin's end.
"In my mind, I am the embodiment of everything he has disagreed with his entire life," Devin said.
"I'm friends with a lot of the guys in the house at this point. Sam and Thomas isolated themselves, willingly, from the group and just did their thing."
Devin elaborated, "So they did not make it an easier for us in this already-uncomfortable environment... I'm at least trying to, what did he say? 'Keep the main thing, the main thing.' I'm trying at least, and they're not! I think that's the big discrepancy between Sam and I."
Devin said Sam's confessionals on The Bachelorette's 21st season have been "very telling" about his character and who he is as a person.
Sam, for instance, has called Devin disrespectful, selfish and "a bully," and when talking to Thomas, Sam called Devin an "ankle-biting dog." (In light of backlash from Sam's family, Jenn recently said Sam's edit is accurate and he should "take responsibility" for what he said on the show).
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"He would say, like, 'I don't respect you,' or, 'I don't like you,' to my face. I get that. But to call me a b-tch and stuff like that behind the cameras, it's very telling," Devin said.
"Again, I am not talking about these guys the way that they're talking about me. If I make a joke about them or Sam in particular, it's usually like I just did, like, 'Keep the main thing, the main thing.' I'm never taking shots."
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Devin boasted about how he's not shocked by what he's watched on the show, which has been "funny" to watch back.
"When you say someone doesn't bother you and you're not going to let someone bother you, and then you proceed to let them bother you so much and talk about it so much, it's very telling about what you are," Devin said, adding, "So I took no offense to it."
Sam, Thomas and Aaron were the guys in the house who had the biggest problem with Devin.
Aaron memorably accused Devin stepping on the other guys' toes and "making an ass" out of himself by stealing extra time with Jenn. Aaron, thinking Devin lacked emotional intelligence, also gave him a book about self-growth.
When Aaron quit The Bachelorette to pursue fight-pilot training, he dropped a bombshell on Jenn that some of her bachelors weren't ready for an engagement and some of her guys weren't on the show for the right reasons.
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"He told me that! He told me I wasn't there for the right reasons during our conversation at the bar," Devin noted.
"So in my mind, I was like, 'Okay, I know he's talking about me. At least have the decency to say my name'... He didn't have the decency to say it to me. He did, but he did it kind of backhandedly, and then he says it to this poor girl who's on her journey and trying to do her thing."
Devin complained about how Aaron had thrown "a wrench" into Jenn's journey "without any care about it" and it was "a frustrating experience."
Devin, however, insisted that he didn't know much about The Bachelorette when he was cast on the show and he stuck around for Jenn only.
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When asked if he could hash things out with these men, if he ever bumps into them in-person, Devin told Joe and Serena, "I think Aaron's probably more of a salvageable case than Sam, for sure."
"Just because Aaron just didn't seem like he had too big of an issue [with me]; it was more of the collective group he associated with," Devin reasoned.
"Once he told them about it and made such a big to do, I think he felt the need to be that voice of reason."
Devin clarified the collective group was Sam, Thomas, Aaron and Spencer Conley.
"But it was mainly just those three -- Thomas, Sam and Aaron. It was like every time I breathed, there was a reason to call up arms," Devin recalled.
"Every time I moved or looked away, there was an issue."
But Devin admitted he had a team of guys behind him, even though it seemed like he was on an island by himself at times.
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Grant even stood up for Devin during a July episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
"I think Devin was locked in on Jenn... I felt as though Devin, if he feels some type of way, he's going to say it and that's how he's going to do it," Grant explained.
"If he feels some type of way, that's what he's going to say and he's going to let you know about it -- and that's the way that I am! So I respected that... If somebody feels like they're owed time, like, I don't owe you time... I'm trying to be with Jenn, so I'm going to approach it like that."
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Click here to read episode-by-episode spoilers about how the rest of Jenn's The Bachelorette season unfolds, including who Jenn picks as her winner and runner-up.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
