The Bachelorette alum Nayte Olukoya has revealed how he and fiancee Michelle Young handle pressure from Bachelor Nation and living as a couple in The Bachelor bubble.
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"But hey, what are you going to do?"
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Nayte said he and Michelle lean on each other and "talk it through" when times are tough.
"We are big talkers," Michelle acknowledged with a smile.
"But at the same time, this is your second time around [on the franchise]. You are, like, a veteran by this time. I think at the beginning, that's when the pressure -- how I was dealing with things six months ago compared to now is night and day," Nayte explained.
Prior to meeting and accepting a marriage proposal from Nayte on The Bachelorette's eighteenth season last year, Michelle competed on Matt James' The Bachelor edition and finished as his runner-up behind Rachael Kirkconnell.
"The pressure six months ago, that was nuts," Nayte admitted. "But now, it's kind of like, 'Oh I went paddleboarding and there's a picture of me with a girl that's one of my best friends on Reddit.' People are saying I'm cheating on you."
Nayte said the rumors don't even "bother" him anymore and he's able to just brush them off.
"I've known this girl. And just the other day... my best friend and college roommate, his girlfriend of 14 years -- there's a picture of her and I," Nayte shared.
"And people were saying that I'm cheating on Michelle, just because there's a picture of us."
Nayte said people "are talking" with every move that he makes, including speculation he and Michelle have broken up or Nayte is partying without his better half.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"[And people say], 'Nayte is spending too much time with the boys.' Whatever it is," Nayte said. "Now, it's kind of like, 'Oh, that's funny. Whatever.' I don't really read too deep into it."
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But Nayte confessed that six months ago, he couldn't stop talking to Michelle about other people's opinions and he called his friend Rodney Mathews "12 times a day" for support and guidance.
"I'd vent to him," Nayte noted. "And I'd call my mom and vent to her... It was just all new."
Nayte pointed out how he and Michelle would probably "deal with this a lot differently," had The Bachelorette been Michelle's first time being scrutinized by Bachelor Nation as well.
"You've been through the wringer with this whole reality TV thing, right?" Nayte told Michelle.
"So it's nice to be engaged to somebody who kind of already knew how to navigate the world and could kind of let me know, like, 'Yeah, people are talking a lot but it's also the two percent of people who are the loudest.'"
While she apparently knows what to say to make Nayte feel better, Michelle certainly feels the heat sometimes.
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"There is a video circulating of me on a rooftop this weekend and I'm not wearing my engagement ring," Michelle told her followers, according to People.
"And what I will have to say is to the person who is paying close enough attention to catch that moment," she continued, "you also had to be paying close enough attention to see one of my friends briefly remove my engagement ring to try it on and then place it back on my finger."
Michelle added, "Just a friendly reminder that Nayte and I, we are human beings -- not a zoo exhibit."
Michelle also pointed out how someone "videoing somebody without them knowing is creepy" and "not cool."
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Michelle and Nayte have been receiving a lot of attention recently because they have yet to move in together since their The Bachelorette finale aired in December 2021, or even decide on which city they should live in.
Michelle -- who is living in Minneapolis, MN, and Nayte, who currently resides in Austin, TX -- were therefore asked about their future plans during the May 10 episode of "Bachelor Happy Hour."
Michelle explained that she and Nayte have begun talking about moving in together and settling down now that she's able to take a break from "traveling so much" following trips to New York, Los Angeles, Mexico, and Canada.
"I feel like [us moving in together] is the burning question. Every time I do a Q&A online, everyone is like, 'Why haven't you moved in yet? When are you moving in together?'" Michelle said.
"And really, it's just that we're trying to figure out where we want to be and what location we want to be at. It's just a constant, ongoing conversation and kind of depends [on] what next year is going to look like for me."
Michelle, who just announced she'll be stepping out of the classroom in 2023, explained at the time how she wasn't sure what her next move was going to be and Nayte -- who had been working remotely -- would probably be returning to the office soon.
"So we're kind of just taking both of our positions into consideration, and then once the school year is done, I think I'm going to have a better idea of where I'm going to be, and then we're going to kind of cater to that... and figure it out together," Michelle shared.
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Michelle shared in April how she and Nayte were in the beginning stages of wedding planning.
"Nayte and I, we know so many different people and we have such big families and that's a huge part of [our planning process]," Michelle told Us Weekly.
"And so coming out of a pandemic... one thing that we both can't imagine is having a small wedding," the Minnesota native added, "and so we want to make sure that we're completely clear of that so that's not even a stressor for us, and then, [we want to have] warm weather [on our big day]."
Michelle assured the magazine that although she and Nayte live apart, they're in constant communication.
"If we're not hanging out, we're texting [or] FaceTiming. We do a lot of movie nights like over FaceTime or Zoom. We've been making it work," Michelle noted, adding, "When we are together, we just spent time together like nonstop."
Nayte previously told Us that he and Michelle would like to marry in the summer, and so it appears they won't be tying the knot until at least Summer 2023.
"We're definitely feeling it all out," Nayte said, before Michelle revealed they'll live together "eventually."
After getting engaged last year, Nayte revealed on After the Final Rose that he had planned to move to Minnesota in the next two or three months and the lovebirds had already begun house-hunting.
Michelle gushed to People in December 2021 about how she and Nayte "have fun together" and can have deep conversations about controversial issues and more.
"We vent to each other, we check each other and make sure that we're positive," Michelle said. "We dance, sing, goof around, all of it."
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"I've never met anybody even, like, remotely close to him because he just has so many layers," Michelle shared of her fiance at the time. "And even now, like on a daily basis, I'm like, 'What did I do to deserve this? How did I get lucky?'"
"He tells me how he feels about me every day, multiple times... I fall more in love every day," she added.
"I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family with a healthy marriage and I thought, 'I'm not going to give up until I have that.' He's my person," she said. "And I didn't know I could love at this level."
And Nayte said he believes their relationship is going to last because they have the type of love everyone searches for.
"Every day, we'll just catch each other in just this, like, flow of emotion," Nayte said last year.
"It's just like, 'Holy crap, we are each other's. This is our life. This is actually forever.' We actually have a connection that is forever."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
