The Bachelorette alum Nayte Olukoya has admitted he felt a "huge" relief after breaking up with Michelle Young.
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Michelle and Nayte got engaged on The Bachelorette's Season 18 finale, which aired in December 2021. During the live After the Final Rose special, ABC gifted the pair a $200,000 check to put toward a down payment on a house.
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However, Nayte was living in Texas at the time, and he and Michelle -- who had strong ties to Minnesota -- never moved in together or even agreed on living in the same state. They ultimately broke up and called off their engagement in June 2022.
"The day after our breakup, boy, come on -- [the relief] was huge. I just felt a whole weight was lifted off my shoulders," Nayte, 29, said during a recent appearance on the "Bachelor Rush Hour With Dave Neal" podcast.
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"And then I was just trying to figure out [what to do] because I was like, 'These people are going to eat me alive.' So I was trying to, without any idea of really how to, prepare myself for when the people found out."
Nayte previously revealed on "The Viall Files" podcast that he dumped Michelle over the phone in June 2022, only days after they had celebrated her birthday.
Nayte told Dave Neal that people found out about their breakup about two weeks later.
"The breakup was a crazy sigh of relief and a weight lifted off me," Nayte reiterated.
Nayte alleged his romance with The Bachelorette's Season 18 star was "not a healthy relationship," and he went on to suggest that Michelle had fought with him a lot or treated him poorly.
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"I was proud of myself and happy for myself to finally put my foot down and be like, 'Yo, enough is enough, and I am out of here,'" Nayte shared.
"It was kind of -- not a celebration, [because] I didn't go out and party and all that stuff -- but everybody who knew what it was that I was dealing with, I made sure to call all of them and let them know, 'Hey, you know what? It is finally done and I am no longer with her. I chose me.'"
Nayte also suggested that he was happier apart from Michelle and so his loves ones were relieved about the breakup as well.
"I called some people just to update them because there were people who were helping me out and helping me through the relationship the most," Nayte said. "I called them to let them know, 'Everything is good now.'"
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Nayte recalled writing up a breakup statement after ending things with Michelle and calling his mother to discuss whom they should surround themselves with once the public got wind of the split.
"We [decided] on good people with good energy, and then the people found out and they tried to ruin my life," Nayte said.
Because fans and the media were allegedly so harsh, Nayte claimed he didn't date again "for a while." He said he just "didn't feel comfortable" doing so in the public eye.
"The online people, they definitely got to me, I'm not going to lie. So [my breakup recovery] is kind of a blur," Nayte explained.
"I just hung out with [The Bachelorette 18 alum Rodney Mathews], hung out with my friends... I was just trying to live life. I stayed in L.A. [and took it] day by day until I felt it was better and safer."
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Nayte claimed on "The Viall Files" podcast in September 2022 that he had initially planned to move to Minnesota to be with Michelle in March of that year but back-to-back fights at the beginning of 2022 delayed his move.
The couple continued fighting, according to Nayte, until their romance failed about six months after The Bachelorette 18 finale aired.
"[After the show], we started consistently and gradually going downhill, where we were just, like, it wasn't sunshine and rainbows anymore," Nayte claimed to Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall.
"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.
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The Bachelorette 18 winner also shared last year how he wanted "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 said in Fall 2022.
After Nayte officially dumped Michelle over the phone, he claimed that she blocked him on social media, which he thought was "a low blow" at the time.
Nayte insisted 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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Nayte also raised eyebrows when he moved from Texas to Los Angeles a few weeks after his breakup with Michelle to pursue modeling.
Michelle told Celeb Secrets TV in September 2022, "You go through something and you think you know someone, and then more recently, [you realize you don't]."
And the former teacher revealed to Ben and Ashley in February 2023 that she really "wanted the relationship to work" and had been "willing to put in work" for it.
"And I had the person take off... Both people have to be capable of [working on the relationship]. And so, for me, [my engagement] was yeah, I feel like that was literally kind of stripped away from me, so it pisses me off!" Michelle vented.
But both Michelle and Nayte have since moved on.
Michelle went Instagram official with new boyfriend Jack Leius in October 2023, and Nayte just revealed on Dave's podcast that he has a girlfriend and is "in a relationship right now."
Nayte shared, "I don't do hookup culture. I've never been into that stuff, and I almost never reply to DMs. If I go to a bar and there's a woman all over me, I'm like, 'I'm going home by myself.' It just doesn't interest me... I'm the type of person, 'Let's meet out and about.'"
Nayte said he met his girlfriend organically and they've been together for a long time; however, he hasn't posted about her on social media because he really values his privacy after his stint on The Bachelorette.
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