The Bachelorette star Jenn Tran has opened up about a terrible past relationship and how she didn't respect her body during that time.
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Jenn grew up in New Jersey and attended college in Pittsburgh before transferring to a different university in Wisconsin. After college, Jenn moved to Boston for a couple of years, and her family still lives there.
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Jenn then moved to Miami, FL, to attend school to be a physician assistant.
When reflecting back on her love life over the last decade during a recent appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, Jenn -- a self-described "awkward" and "weird" girl in middle school -- said she was a "shy" athlete in high school who was still coming into her own.
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"I had a lot of issues," Jenn teased to Alex Cooper.
"Towards the end of high school, I'd say I really wanted to explore, and then I got into college and I really wanted to explore as well! I was a little boy crazy, and I ended up in a lot of bad situations that maybe I shouldn't have been in."
When asked to explain those "bad situations," Jenn shared, "I think I really used my body for a lot of whatever."
"I think that I wasn't fully respecting myself during those times," she continued. "I just didn't know how relationships worked. My parents were divorced and I never really had a good role model for love."
Being in college with that perspective on relationships, Jenn admitted she was in trouble.
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"I entered relationships that were really bad for me! One time, I was so delusional and naive that I was seeing this guy who essentially had a girlfriend," Jenn noted.
At the time, Jenn was unaware that this man had a girlfriend. But once she found out, the guy promised that he had broken up with the woman in question
"But he was living with the girl at the time!" Jenn revealed.
"He drove me freakin' insane! He would make dates with me, like, 'Meet me at this place at 9PM,' and then he'd go home to his girlfriend, and block my number. So every message I sent him afterwards would turn green."
Jenn poked fun at herself and recalled, "Little naive Jenn was like, 'Maybe he's going through a tunnel for hours and hours and he just doesn't have service!'"
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Jenn confessed that she was "insane" at the time and her poor college roommates "had to deal with" this drama.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, he's not answering me! What do I do?! He's in a tunnel again!'" Jenn said with a laugh. "But the tunnel was his girlfriend. It was crazy!"
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Jenn said she had so many friends who attempted to snap her out of it, but nothing worked.
"I was like, 'He told me he loved me, and so it's fine!'" Jenn shared. "It's crazy, the things I delusionally believed in back at that time."
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Although the situation was shady, Jenn admitted that she liked the attention.
"And so I was like, 'What more can I do to keep this attention going?' And then you drive yourself insane," Jenn said.
This relationship lasted for about six months, with Jenn adding, "There was a turning point in that when I realized, 'He's insane.' He was actually, like, a sociopath. He'd lie to me like crazy and never own up to it."
Once Jenn had this epiphany, she shared how she decided to turn the tables and "play the game" right back.
"If he's going to lie to me and do all of this, then I am going to," Jenn noted.
"So I started using him for dinner and drinks and all of this stuff, and then he'd be like, 'Can I go back to your apartment?' Obviously I could never go to his. And I'd be like, 'Sorry, I've got class early, I've got to -- but thanks for dinner!'"
Not only did this man have a girlfriend behind Jenn's back, but he was also her boss at the time!
"He was somebody that I worked with in the restaurant, and he was kind of my boss. So I had a boss thing. I had a power complex, I don't know!" Jenn said.
"It was weird. But he was not that much older; he was like a year or two older."
Jenn laughed about how this college boyfriend would "ignore her in the tunnel" only to come face to face with her the next day at work.
"He'd act like everything was fine, like, 'Oh baby, I'm so sorry! Let me take you out tonight.' I was batsh-t crazy. I believed him because we worked together!" Jenn exclaimed.
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"I was like, 'He cannot be this crazy -- to lie to me and then go to work with me.'"
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Alex pointed out how that must have been a challenging dynamic given Jenn had to respect her boss and follow his rules, all the while thinking about how he was messing with her mind.
Alex joked, however, that it was probably "hot" to take orders from the man she was sleeping with, and Jenn agreed.
"Yes! Now you're getting it!" Jenn quipped.
Jenn was admittedly attracted to men who only had one foot in the door and didn't treat her the way that she deserves to be treated. She said she had "picked so many" bad guys over the years.
"I've gone through a lot of therapy... and what I think is that I'm so addicted to someone not giving me everything because I've been so used to working for things in my life -- working for love, affection and success," Jenn acknowledged.
"I like guys who don't give me everything all at once because I've been so used to that environment... In a lot of my relationships, I really went towards people who gave me that fight or flight feeling. They'd give [love] to me and then take it back. [There was that] toxicity."
Once Jenn graduated from college, she admitted that she was "still finding" herself and slowly growing in confidence.
On the July 8 episode of the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast, Jenn shared how she had dated a guy a few years ago who moved her to Miami and then suddenly dumped her via FaceTime without an explanation. The man proceeded to ghost her.
But Jenn insisted that wild "era" of her dating life was over and that door "closed" once she competed on Joey Graziadei's season of The Bachelor, which filmed in late 2023 and aired earlier this year.
Jenn explained on the podcast, "The only person that can pull yourself out of it is you, and you've just got to work through it and work through your insecurities and find your self-respect."
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Jenn concluded that, as a result of her upbringing and mistakes, she believes marriage should be a true partnership and she wants to marry a man who will prioritize her and value her worth.
Jenn's The Bachelorette season premiered July 8 on ABC, and she has 15 bachelors remaining heading into Episode 3 of Season 21.
Based on a preview of what's to come this season, one of Jenn's ex-boyfriends shows up and attempts to join her cast of bachelors and win her over.
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Click here to read episode-by-episode spoilers about how Jenn's The Bachelorette season unfolds, including who Jenn picks as her winner and runner-up.
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