The Bachelorette alum Michelle Young has revealed how she met boyfriend Jack Leius after her split from ex-fiance Nayte Olukoya.
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Michelle took Jack to The Golden Wedding as her date, and the pair spoke about their relationship during the Friday, January 5 episode of "The Ben and Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."
Jack, 26, shared with Ben and his guest co-host Trista Rehn, "[Michelle] has a good friend, and her friend has a little brother, who I know, and her friend's little brother posted Michelle in his [Instagram] Story and so I kind of just hit him up a couple times, like, 'Hey man, when are you going to introduce me to Michelle?'"
Jack admitted he persistently asked this "little brother" for an introduction.
"We started texting about it, and I hit him up this one night and I... was like, 'I'm really serious. You need to be taking me seriously; I really want to meet Michelle.' It was not, like, anything crazy, but he thought I was joking," Jack shared.
He added, "I was like, 'I really want to meet her. She's beautiful.' And he was like, 'You know what? Actually, I think that could be a good thing. I think you guys would be really cool and vibe together.' And so, the next night, I met her."
Michelle then interjected and noted how there was "a catch" to this story.
"Here's the catch: I had no idea any of this was going on, and I was with said little brother and my friend, and we were just talking," Michelle said.
"We happened to talk about being single, and I said, 'I have no idea how I'm supposed to meet anybody in Minnesota. My person is definitely not in Minnesota at this point. I've got to fly and I've got to start traveling more because they're not on the apps!'"
Michelle joked about how dating apps made her feel like she was "going to be single forever."
"And so, I asked, 'Do you have any single friends?' [I was] thinking that I already knew all of his friends. And he was like, 'Actually, have I ever talked to you about Jack?' I was like, 'Who's Jack?' And so I pulled up his Instagram profile and I loved the fact there were only five pictures." Michelle shared.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"I myself got an Instagram only a few years ago, and I was like, 'He's really cute.' I actually started to blush."
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Michelle said one of her friends called her out for blushing.
"We were sitting at a Vikings boot-camp practice, this event, and everyone was sitting there, like, 'Awww,' and all of this different stuff," Michelle admitted.
"I was like, 'Well, is he a good person? He's good looking, but is he a good person?... What's the catch? What's wrong with him?' That's what I think I asked."
But Michelle called, "He was like, 'No, I can't believe I haven't introduced you.' In my world, I thought I brought it up to this person, but [Jack] also did the same thing within, like, 48, hours... It was really weird."
Michelle and Jack apparently met that very night, shortly after Michelle had attended the Vikings practice.
"I didn't know until [Jack and I] had been dating for like two or three weeks, when we actually figured out we had asked about each other within 48 hours," Michelle proudly stated.
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"I think we spent the next four days together. And we were dating by Sunday," Jack said with a laugh.
Michelle explained how she and Jack may be an example of the "invisible string theory" in which it's believed a person has been in the same room with his or her soul mate or life partner multiple times without knowing it.
"We went through breakups at the exact same time. We were both going through devastating breakups and we were both in the same stage of our breakups," Michelle shared.
"We were not ready to meet someone. We'd think we were ready to meet someone, and then we'd take those few steps back. We go to all the same bars. Minnesota is not that big! And the lake he grew up [near], my family fishes on that lake 24/7... [And] I went to a football game that he was playing at, and I hadn't even known, back when I was a teacher."
Now that they're an item in the public eye, Jack said he enjoyed his time at The Golden Wedding and that his first Bachelor-Nation event went pretty smoothly.
Michelle had teased on TikTok in September that she was going on a date and would hopefully end the year "crazy in love."
Michelle then soft launched her new romance via Instagram Stories on October 9 when she uploaded a photo with a man at the Minnesota Vikings vs. Kansas City Chiefs game.
In the selfie, Michelle was smiling big as the unidentified man with black curly hair -- who was wearing a purple Vikings hat -- kissed her on the cheek.
Later that month, Michelle posted a photo of "dinner vibez" with a mystery man.
Jack is Michelle's first serious relationship since calling off her engagement to Nayte, which aired in December 2021.
Nayte recently said on the "Bachelor Rush Hour With Dave Neal" podcast that he knew his relationship with Michelle wasn't going to last and he felt "a huge relief" when they called it quits.
Nayte -- who has a new girlfriend -- also confessed that The Bachelorette was a "terrible" chapter in his life that "really f-cked" him up.
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The couple allegedly fought constantly, and so Michelle and Nayte's relationship lasted only six months after the finale aired.
"It's been really interesting. Just, you know, you go through something and you think you know someone, and then more recently, [you don't]," Michelle told Celeb Secrets TV in September 2022.
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On "The Viall Files" podcast, Nayte recalled there being a sudden and unexpected shift in his relationship with the former The Bachelorette star once they entered the real world, from being blissfully happy to living with tension.
"We started consistently and gradually going downhill, where we were just, like, it wasn't sunshine and rainbows anymore," he claimed.
"I remember crying my heart out to [my mom and stepdad, saying], 'I'm so frustrated and I have no idea what's going on in this relationship.' How can you be so sure about something and then just have it fall apart?"
Nayte said he felt pressure to be perfect since Michelle was a famous face and they were the new hot couple in Bachelor Nation at the time. Nayte also said there were trust issues on his part, citing an incident when Michelle had allegedly suspiciously deleted a DM conversation with a famous male country singer.
The Bachelorette 18 winner also shared how he wants "more of a partner and less of a coach" in his next relationship.
"I miss the Michelle I fell in love with, but I'm not sure I miss the Michelle I broke up with," Nayte told Nick Viall in 2022.
Nayte ultimately admitted that he dumped Michelle over the phone in June 2022 only days after they had celebrated her birthday. Nayte said she proceeded to block him on social media, which he called "a low blow."
Nayte previously claimed he had never cheated on Michelle, but Michelle was admittedly blindsided by his choice to call it quits on their relationship.
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Michelle admitted in February 2023 that Nayte had "stripped" her of her "dream" engagement.
"Honestly, for me, [it's] tainted. Because it was my dream ring," Michelle said of her pear-shaped diamond on Ben and Ashley Iaconetti's podcast.
She added, "I wanted the relationship to work. I was willing to put in work for the relationship. And I had the person take off... Both people have to be capable of [working on the relationship]. And so, for me, it was yeah, I feel like that was literally kind of stripped away from me, so it pisses me off!"
Michelle said she's looking forward for her "real" second engagement, but The Bachelorette alum confessed to having very "high standards" for her future partner, which may result in her being "single 4 life."
On TikTok, Michelle opened up in early 2023 how she'd like to date a goal-oriented man who plans romantic dates from start to finish and can go with the flow and remain positive in the face of unexpected challenges.
As far as dealbreakers go, Michelle said "complacency" and being "emotionally unavailable." She also said it's unattractive when men get stuck in a pyramid scheme, cannot read a room, give guilt trips, and fail to communicate effectively.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
