'Bachelor in Paradise' alum Danielle Maltby gets "real and honest," cries on birthday after Michael Allio split

Bachelor in Paradise alum Danielle Maltby has admitted that she cried on her birthday amid her split from boyfriend and The Bachelorette alum Michael Allio.


Danielle, whose breakup from Michael made headlines in late September, took to Instagram Stories on Friday, October 6 to express how she was feeling on her 38th birthday.

"I might delete this, but in a world of curated images, real and honest moments get lost," Danielle wrote on an image of herself looking somber and teary-eyed.

"I am so excited for some of my friends to get here today and we're going to have a great day/night... [But] last night and this morning were tough."

Danielle continued, "It's OK to cry and feel things as they come up. Just a gentle reminder everyone feels things in their own way and time, and it's OK to cry on your birthday and it's OK to remember who you are and everything you have to look forward to."


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Hours later, Danielle revealed that she felt "more relaxed" after having a good cry.

"That's not what happens for everyone, but crying is a release and waves of emotions if you're able to sit with and in them are momentary even if they don't feel momentary," Danielle wrote.

"OK done, going to sleep a little more on my day off," she concluded.

Michael, 39, announced he and Danielle were no longer together during the September 21 episode of the "Trading Secrets" podcast hosted by fellow The Bachelorette alum Jason Tartick.


Michael, in part, shared, "When things don't work out and you realize that love is there but you're not necessarily compatible, you mourn the loss."

Danielle subsequently claimed in a series of messages via Instagram Stories that their split -- which Michael had announced without consulting her first, allegedly -- "shocked" her and was "not a mutual decision arriving at some perception of incompatibilities."

The Bachelor alum shared how she doesn't regret loving Michael "for a second" and wishes "all the best" for Michael and his son.

"While these last couple months have been extremely difficult and painful for me, I am succeeding in finding moments of joy in building a new life in this city regardless of how I came to it," Danielle shared.

"I have been extremely invested in my job, which I love and I feel hopeful again to discover what the future holds for me. Out of respect for the time we shared, love I have and honoring the fact there is a child involved, I won't be addressing this further."


However, the nurse and model -- who had moved from Tennessee to Ohio to be with Michael and his seven-year-old son James earlier this year -- did address the breakup further.

The Bachelor alum dropped a bombshell on her "Wo Med" podcast that Michael allegedly "blindsided" and dumped her one day after she had an egg retrieval procedure, according to Us Weekly.

Danielle said Michael actually accompanied her to the egg retrieval and waited sweetly for her to finish with a matcha latte in hand.

"What's hard in talking about this really isn't the procedure itself, it's what came after," Danielle recalled.

"And I just need to get it out there so that people can stop asking questions and I can just move forward. But the day after Michael and I got home from freezing my eggs, he... broke up with me and I was very, very blindsided by it. Obviously still very emotional and hurt and confused. I still don't really have any answers."


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Danielle confirmed that she was still "grieving the loss of him," even though nearly three months had passed since their official split.

"I'm grieving the loss of the future that I really believed in and I'm grieving the loss of James," Danielle lamented.

"And I'm grieving the loss of safety that I felt with him for the first time. He was the first person that ever made me feel safe in a relationship, that made me feel like I was enough. And then that was taken away."

Although the breakup tainted Danielle's memory of her egg-freezing procedure, Danielle assured fans that she's happy to have followed through with it given "the future is extremely uncertain right now."


She elaborated, "It's really hard thinking back on the whole experience because it was a really beautiful trip. I was so proud of myself. Michael took great care of me and it was a very, very love-filled weekend and I ended up being able to freeze eight eggs, which now I am just incredibly, incredibly grateful for, as I am now alone."

But Danielle did confess Michael's brutal post-procedure dumping left her in "complete physical shock."

"It was really difficult to come down off of this experience that I was so excited for and then to have to come down off the hormones while being in complete shock, like complete physical shock, I was just completely blindsided," Danielle said.

Although Danielle called those turn of events "very traumatizing," she admitted it was all a little hazy and blurry to her due to being in shock.

In response to Danielle's allegation Michael had brutally dumped her, Michael claimed via Instagram Stories in late September, "Before [Danielle] moved up, I told her I wanted to be extremely clear about where I was at and I told her that I am in no place -- and can't even fathom a place in the future -- where I can have kids," according to Us.

"I'm so focused on raising my son]. I said, 'Sadly you have to move up here and go through this relationship knowing you will maybe never have kids with me,'" he elaborated.


Michael didn't clarify why he felt his "you will maybe never have kids with me" comment would have been an "extremely clear" statement that he didn't see himself ever wanting to have children with Danielle, but he also added, "And I felt really bad saying that because I know she always wanted them. But I had to be honest about where I was at. The idea of welcoming another child, for me, I can't even do it. It doesn't fit my lifestyle."

The business owner from Akron, OH, claimed that Danielle actually handled the news about his reluctance to expand his family "really gracefully" before she chose to move to Ohio.

The Bachelorette alum also reportedly insisted that Danielle didn't do "the whole egg-freezing thing" for him and said Danielle was probably hoping the eggs would be "used for a child that we conceived together, but it didn't happen that way."

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In regards to Michael's unexpected breakup announcement on Jason's podcast, Michael confirmed that he didn't warn Danielle ahead of time and that she had no idea it was coming.

"[But] there's a reason why. We broke up 13 weeks ago and over the span of that 13 weeks, we spoke multiple times about how we want to roll this out," Michael explained.


"I suggested doing a mutual breakup post, but she did not want to do that mainly because this breakup was not mutual. She told me, 'Go out there, say what you want to say, do what you want to do. I'll follow suit.'"

According to The Bachelorette alum, Danielle asked him not to call or contact her because staying in communication would make healing and moving on "that much more difficult."

However, Michael claimed that he was not quick to throw in the towel, and that he and Danielle had attended couples' therapy to try to salvage their relationship.

"We did go to couples therapy to see if we could find common ground in the relationship and, sadly, we couldn't do that," Michael said in Q&A session with his followers.

"She wanted me to wait [to announce the breakup] and I felt, like, because I was the one that broke it off with her, I should be respectful of that. So, I kind of waited for her lead and when she started taking down posts on Instagram, I kind of followed suit."

Michael -- who welcomed James with his late wife Laura Ritter-Allio, who died from breast cancer in 2019 -- also said he's been working with a therapist, individually, "for a very, very long time" and that it's helping him cope.


"But I do think people are very quick to assume that if I'm dating somebody and it doesn't end in marriage that it must be because I'm not over my dead wife," The Bachelorette alum noted.

"It is so rude, so arrogant and so disrespectful; have some class, people. There's more to it than just grief. Dani and my relationship had nothing to do with grief. I welcomed her into my life. I feel more ready now than I ever have been and sometimes, at the end of the day, you're just not compatible."

Michael continued via Instagram Stories, "[If] there's something that you're looking for that doesn't exist in that other person, it doesn't mean you try to change that person and turn them into this perfect version for you because that's wrong too."

Given Michael was clearly having doubts about his future with Danielle, a fan asked Michael to explain why he didn't stop Danielle from quitting her job in Nashville and moving to his home state in order to progress their relationship.

The Bachelorette alum pointed out how Danielle had made a real "sacrifice on her end" and explained how he's unable to leave Ohio due to his "support system" that helps him take care of James.

Michael claimed he "totally" would have considered moving to Nashville if he didn't have a child to raise.


"Danielle was in a transition period and she wanted to leave her job," Michael said, adding how Danielle had been thinking about moving to Ohio for reasons other than their post-Bachelor in Paradise romance.

"If we would have stayed long distance we wouldn't have known whether or not this would have worked, and our goal was to make it work."

Prior to Michael's breakup announcement, fans had been speculating for nearly two months about whether Michael and Danielle were still together or had ended their relationship.

All signs pointed to a split when Danielle had wiped all photos and videos of Michael from her Instagram account in early September. Michael also fueled breakup rumors when he deleted images of Danielle on his Instagram account.

And then on September 17, hours before Jason and Michael's "Trading Secrets" episode dropped, Danielle posted a cryptic message on social media advising her followers to "keep looking up" and being positive.

"Rainbows have been my sign lately that everything will be OK. To keep looking up and finding the light around you," Danielle shared via Instagram Stories, along with a photo of country singer Brandi Carlile, who was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during her September 16 show in Cleveland.


"They've come in different forms," The Bachelor alum continued. "A couple double rainbows in the sky, some being sent by friends after we're done talking about them... Dreams will come true."

Michael and Danielle ignored questions and comments about the status of their relationship for a while, but Michael was put on the spot about his relationship -- which began on Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season last summer -- during the August 2 episode of the "She's All Bach" podcast.

At the time, Michael dodged direct questions about whether he and Danielle were still an item.

The father reluctantly shared, "I'll say this. Being in a public relationship, it isn't fun. Danielle and I, like, both agree that the only people that should be in our relationship are us two."

"So we think just the healthiest way to have a relationship is to keep it private," he added last month.

Michael insisted, however, that he and Danielle "both love each other, like, very much."


"But we just kind of want to keep things private," Michael reiterated.

"I think when you start having a relationship and bringing people into it, people have opinions, you know, and it's just not the right way to run a relationship, so that's just something we've decided."

In addition to Michael and Danielle's suspicious social-media activity this past summer, the Instagram account @Deuxmoi also posted a blind in late July claiming two Paradise fan-favorites were in trouble.

"Fan favorite moved to be closer to her final pick... might have to move back?" an anonymous person wrote, seemingly referring to Danielle's move to Ohio to be closer to Michael and his son James.

"Did her final pick struggle to be truthful about his journey for love? Seems that both have split as they have not been spotted together in over a month, have not interacted online with each other even though they live in the same city! She clearly deserves better."

Prior to the breakup rumors, the former Bachelor in Paradise lovebirds had been posting about each other all the time. In fact, they were very lovey-dovey on social media.


Danielle -- who lost her late fiance Nick Haag to a drug overdose in 2011 -- moved to Cleveland for Michael in February. Prior to the move, the nurse had lived in Nashville for 12 years.

After competing for Katie Thurston's heart on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season and then turning down a starring role on The Bachelor, Michael appeared on Bachelor in Paradise last summer.

On Paradise, Michael was romantically interested in Sierra Jackson, but he ultimately determined something was "missing" between them and he was unable to let his walls down due to grief.

But when Danielle stepped foot on the Paradise beach in Mexico, Michael seemed ecstatic and affectionately called her "Dani."

The pair had spoken via DMs on Instagram and become friends prior to filming the show, but Paradise marked the first time they were meeting in-person.

Michael and Danielle were able to connect quickly over their similar losses and traumas. The pair slowly got to know each other and never expressed interest in dating anyone else on the show.


Michael and Danielle chose to leave Bachelor in Paradise together as a couple before overnight Fantasy Suites. They both determined they weren't ready to get engaged, especially because Danielle had yet to meet James.

However, Michael revealed on the reunion show in November that James quickly came to adore Danielle and never wanted her to leave when she was visiting.

Danielle also confirmed that she felt the same way about James and couldn't wait to be a bigger part of his life.

Michael also announced on the reunion show that he was "in love" with Danielle and she had changed his life for the better. Danielle is only the second woman whom Michael ever said, "I love you," to.

While Danielle had no reservations about moving to Ohio in order to progress her relationship with Michael naturally, she explained how they didn't want to live under the same roof -- at least not yet -- as to not rush things or disrupt James' comfortable routine.

"I'm just so excited," Michael said on social media in December of Danielle's decision to uproot her life for him.


"Long distance is difficult, but we've made the best of it and this next chapter and upcoming year is one I am so looking forward to. She's the best!"

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski