Call Her Daddy: Jenn Tran

Another Bachelor Nation member is invited on the 2nd largest podcast in the US+Globally! Here's everything we learned about Jenn 🌹

The new Bachelorette, Jenn Tran, becomes the 4th Bachelor Nation member to go on the Call Her Daddy podcast. In 2023, CHD was the 2nd biggest podcast on Spotify in the US and Globally. Previous contestants who have been on were Nick Viall, Colton Underwood, and Maria Georgas.

Here’s everything you need to know from the episode…

🚨 = Key moments to know going into Jenn’s season

Coming back from filming and seeing what everyone said after her announcement:

Jenn says there’s a lot of opinions on her season. 🚨 When she came back from filming, she saw a lot of opinions that people wanted someone else and she saw a lot of racism around people wanting “an American” instead of her. (Note: Jenn is American) So we can now confirm Jenn didn’t see any of the reactions from when she was announced and was immediately sequestered for filming the night of After the Final Rose. (Note: when filming, leads and contestants do not get access to their phones or internet)

Discussion on Race in The Bachelor Franchise:

Alex points out that historically leads have been predominately white and moves into Jenn being the first Asian American lead. Jenn feels validated that there needs to be change. She’s been told her whole life that racism doesn’t exist and that Asians don’t have to deal with racism/Asians are the “better minority.” Jenn’s happy to take on the brunt of the backlash if she’s making a change for the people coming after her.

Where was Jenn when she found out she was the next lead:

She was getting back from the gym in her car and she got a text from one of the producers asking if she could hop on a call. She had been in talks for months at this point (Note: the franchise talks to 3-5 people for the lead role leading up to the decision - many don’t find out until the day of the announcement). Jenn learned about it on this call. (No timeline provided here)

Jenn’s thoughts on Maria and Daisy saying they turned down the role:

Jenn didn’t have her phone once she was announced since she went straight into filming, so she didn’t see the reaction to Daisy’s interview turning down the role and didn’t see Maria’s Call Her Daddy interview while she was filming. Jenn was disappointed to see everything. She says, “there’s a lot of narratives out there and they’re not necessarily the truth.”

She says there are always multiple people in talks for the role and it’s never really you until it’s you. That’s why Jenn is disappointed. She had interview for months and then they offered it to her. She feels like this is taking away from what her journey was. She’s not going to let anyone else take claim from that.

(Note: When Maria was on Call Her Daddy, Alex shared that Maria was scheduled to be announced as the Bachelorette on Call Her Daddy but it was cancelled the night before. So this feels like Alex is walking back her statement. This isn’t meant to be a dig at Jenn, to be clear. But the discussion on this is very different from what Alex said back in May.)

Jenn is still good with the other women.

Jenn’s life before Bachelor

Grew up in New Jersey. Then went to Pittsburgh for school > Wisconsin transfer > then a few years Boston. Her family is now in Boston. She talks about her awkward phase in middle school. She played club sports in high school. She was focused on trying to make people like her instead of her identity.

In college she was exposed to more diversity and got to rewrite herself/embrace everything that makes her her. Talks about her identity in being Vietnamese.

Jenn had a phase where she was a bit boy crazy, using her body for “a lot of whatever” and wasn’t fully respecting herself at times. Didn’t have a great role of love since her parents were divorced. She entered a lot of bad relationships, being with men that were with other women. Tells a story about a guy who was with another girlfriend, then when she found out he said they were broken up and it wasn’t a big deal. Turns out he was living with the other girlfriend. He would block her number when he went home with his other girlfriend. Her texts to him would turn green (Jenn is an iPhone user), and she thought he would be in a bad service area and that’s why the texts would turn green. That relationship went on for 6 months. This guy was her boss at work. Talks about the toxic cycle of going back to work with him and taking orders from him. On friends trying to help her out of it: “The only person that can pull yourself out of it is you.”

Jenn on her relationship history and what type of men she’s pursued:

Going back to her parents, Jenn’s learned a relationship requires a true partnership. Her parents argued a lot from a young age. Her dad wasn’t a big part of her life, but he was more in her older brother’s life (he’s 9 years older than Jenn). Jenn’s dad chose to not be a part of her life in college. A lot of fighting and aggression when she was little. Her mom did a lot for the family and Jenn felt like she needed to become independent from a young age. It takes Jenn a lot to ask for help as a result, and this impacts her relationships and letting people in.

Jenn’s relationship with her dad impacted her dating history and she’s chosen a lot of bad guys. Through therapy Jenn’s learned she’s addicted to being with someone who doesn’t give her everything because she’s been so used to working for everything in her life. She likes guys who don’t give her everything all at once. Used to being with men who give her the fight or flight feeling she grew up with.

How did Jenn get on The Bachelor?

Jenn had a social media presence before going on the show. When she was in PA school, she wanted a creative outlet. She wanted to be a YouTuber/Vlogger from a young age. She started making content talking about herself in PA school. A casting producer came across Jenn’s Tiktoks and approach her about applying on the show.

📊 DATA: When Jenn was announced as a potential cast member for Joey’s season (9/16/2023), she had 19,372 followers on Tiktok and 2,803 followers on Instagram. She ranked 5th out of 32 women on Joey’s cast for Tiktok followers and 21st of 32 for Instagram followers.

Jenn got in a boating accident in the Florida Keys the week before filming when another boat hit their boat. She decided that day she was going to call up PA school and let them know she was going on the show. Jenn said she almost died and she felt like she needed to do something for herself.

Getting to know Jenn:

Alex plays a game where she gives a scenario and Jenn will say if the man in the scenario would get a rose 🌹 from her:

• Scenario: He has a girl best friend.

  • Jenn says it depends.. how long have they known each other, has he tried to sleep with her. When asked how she would find out, Jenn says she would just ask. 🌹 Maybe but depends on the story and if it continues to check out. At some point, Jenn should become the girl best friend.

• Scenario: He is outdoorsy and his ideal vacation is camping.

  • Jenn says she prefers glamping over camping. 🌹Jenn could do it if she trusts him with the bears and stuff. She’s a “nature gal.” (Side note: I’m sad Jenn missed the bear vs man pop culture moment while she was filming 😂). Alex asks if Jenn considers herself as ‘high maintenance’ - she said no but there’s particular things she’s particular about, like straightening her hair and she’d need a way to do it in the woods.

• Scenario: He’s a mama’s boy.

  • Jenn hesitates and asks how bad? A man who is calling his mom for everything every second of the day? 🙅‍♀️Jenn says no. She loves someone who has a good relationship with their mom but there’s a moment where they need to fly away from the nest.

  • 🚨 Alex asks how quickly Jenn introduces someone to her family: she normally doesn’t. Jenn says her family can be very judgmental and very critical. She won’t until she feels like they’re the right person. Alex then asks about the process of introducing men to her family on her season of The Bachelorette and if Jenn was proud of her family: Jenn said, “they were exactly themselves.” Family was not shy, no filters and they spoke their feelings. Jenn asked them to stop at one point. They’re not afraid to speak their minds. Her brother was not shy at all, he was himself. Her mother didn’t want to go on TV - she was practicing lines in English before the episode she was going on. (🥹 Y’all… this is so sweet 😭😭😭) Jenn told her mom she could absolutely speak Vietnamese on TV. Jenn felt bad when she learned about that. Jenn’s mom did speak Vietnamese at one point. (Note: this was a very interesting segment if you’ve been following Reddit during Jenn’s filming.)

• Scenario: His ideal weekend is going to the club and partying.

  • Immediate no from Jenn 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️. At her age (Jenn is 26), she’s too old for that. When Jenn moved to Miami, she partied all the time. She still enjoys it but doesn’t want to do it all the time.

• 🚨Scenario: If he’s often in the middle of drama during the season.

  • TRANSCRIPTION: Drama can go a lot of different ways. So it’s like, why are you in the middle of drama? Like do you start it? Are people just jealous of you or, what is it? So it depends.

  • Alex: Did you feel like you were good at sussing out like if they were being honest or if they were being a little shit?

  • Jenn: Yes, absolutely. I think I, very much, have like a gut feeling that I trust and there were definitely certain men that I trusted more than others. Was there drama? Yes. And did I have to sus things out myself? Yes I did. And I’d like to say that I, you know my gut was right at the end of the day.

🚨 Moving onto Bachelorette:

When asked how it was dating 25 men, Jenn didn’t remember all their names on night 1. The first night, it was strangely easy to flirt and get along with everyone. As time went on, she found it easy to be in the moment with each man. It wasn’t too hard. It was easy to compartmentalize at the beginning but got harder towards the end.

At the first rose ceremony, does Jenn have an earpiece in? Jenn says no. She says you have to try your best but if you need a little help, you can “phone a friend.” And ask to go to the back room for help with names. (Note: lots of leads have shared about this. On the show, the lead will hand out a few roses. Then they go to the back to get the list of the next few names, then go back out to hand out a few more. The order of roses are given to leads by production. And they’re a few people are often edited into a different order on the show.)

Have any of Jenn’s exes reached out to her since The Bachelor or The Bachelorette: Since The Bachelor, yes. When asked what they said, Jenn said 2 ex-boyfriends. One was an ex from Boston that she dated for two months and then they were good friends after. “Then we were really good friends after the fact. And so we’ve been in touch like here and there. I’ve gone on family vacations with him before. Maybe a little benefit here and there, but I would never date him again just because we’re just such different people. After the Bachelor, I think he reached out in a more maybe like serious manner. And I was like entertaining it as like a friend because, hey, I like attention, whatever. But I knew that I was never actually going to be with him because I was like, there’s just like. I’ve been there before. I don’t want to do it again. But I care about him as a friend very deeply.” She then explains they were supposed to go to a wedding together in Columbia before The Bachelorette, then she decided she couldn’t go with him because of The Bachelorette and trying to find the love of her life. He was a little disappointed. She said the free trip to Columbia being single would have been fun. Then the other ex-boyfriend who reached out what the toxic ex (feels like she referencing the one from the story above that was her boss but she says they were in a relationship for a year, so this might be a different ex). He reached out to Jenn with a long letter with everything he did wrong. She had always wanted an apology from him and it took him that long to apologized and the letter made her angry. She felt like she had already healed her wounds and the letter felt like it was for him to heal himself. She liked his messaged and told him good luck.

What is the most valuable lesson she’s learned about herself through this process? That it’s okay to have a voice. She didn’t feel comfortable expressing her needs, wants, and standing up for herself. Jenn felt in the past it would make people love her less.

How did Jenn figure out the deciding factors in when to send someone home over someone else? Could she see a life with the person? Did they say something that was a red flag?

Is Jenn happy with the way this season ended? “I think that the way everything like played out was exactly the way that i was supposed to. And the ending was the right ending for me. So I’m happy, yes, for me because everything was the way that it was supposed to go.”

Do you think that people are going to be shocked by the ending? Are you engaged? (This question was asked in a very roundabout way.. it was hard to transcribe y’all. The answer had a lot of “likes” and incomplete sentences so I’m going to do my best to summarize lol) Jenn didn’t know how it was going to end during the process. She went into it thinking it was going to be a certain way and she surprised herself in the end. Jenn thinks people will be shocked for sure.

How much does Jenn allow Fantasy Suites to affect her brain? (aka decision) How did she approach them? Jenn would be lying if she said it wasn’t a concern (alluding to intimacy). She couldn’t think about the other guys that were there because that would be doing a disservice to herself. If anyone had a problem with that (intimacy), that’s on them and they weren’t her person at the end of it all. Jenn used the time to talk about finances, religion, who did you vote for? The stuff you can’t talk about on camera “because they don’t care about that stuff” (alluding to production haha). Jenn also talked about if guys were open to practicing the religion she practices. (Side note: I’m not sure which religion this is, but I’ll edit this post if I find out)

Does Jenn know who will be the villain? She said, “oh yes, please. I called it from night one.” (Note: this was an interesting detail for her to disclose… because it means she knows the person would be a villain and kept them past night one.)

Does Jenn know who might be the next Bachelor/lead? She said she thinks she does. She doesn’t know if she’s allowed to say (she’s not haha). One stands out as a man who could be amazing for somebody but just not her.

What do you want people to know about you before tuning into this season? Jenn wants people to know that she’s a very dynamic person and that you can’t judge me based off of one line that she said or one scene/one interview because she has a lot of different layers to her. People are quick to judge on the internet. There’s a lot of growth there during her season.

Side note: I saw someone on reddit say a slight spoiler was in the episode about the ending. I didn’t hear it, so they may have edited the episode. (Link to the SPOILER that was edited out, proceed with caution if you’re trying to fully avoid spoilers)

Other Fun Facts about Jenn:

• She’s a tequila girlie

• Alex says Jenn smells amazing (Jenn shares she wears Carolina Herrera)

Jenn’s season of The Bachelorette premieres on Monday, July 8th at 8pm EST and we will be doing weekly coverage of her season here on Substack.

A quick note from Suzana:

Hi everyone! I’m back! It’s been a whirlwind of a month here with an unplanned move that took a lot of time of out of my life. I’ll have more to share soon on that but I’m back full time with content creation. Lots of good content on the list coming this week!