The Bachelorette couple Michelle Young and Nayte Olukoya are apparently unfazed by the criticism out there that Nayte didn't seem genuinely in love with Michelle or truly ready for an engagement.
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Michelle, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher from St. Louis Park, MN, selected Nayte, a 27-year-old Canadian sales executive who currently resides in Austin, TX, as her Season 18 winner over her self-proclaimed "devastated" runner-up Brandon Jones.
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Nayte proposed marriage to Michelle at the Final Rose Ceremony that aired during Tuesday night's finale of The Bachelorette, but the couple had to face a little adversity on their path to happily ever after.
Nayte, for example, was accused of being cocky throughout the season, and he struggled to discuss his feelings and be vulnerable with Michelle, which led some viewers -- and even Michelle's parents, initially, during their first meeting in Mexico -- to question his sincerity.
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"Of course it's a little annoying," Nayte said of the skeptical The Bachelorette fans during Wednesday's episode of Us Weekly's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast.
"But at the end of the day, it is just noise. It is just fluff... I know who I am, Michelle knows who I am. Michelle was able to see me for me so early on. And that's really all that matters."
After Nayte received Michelle's First Impression Rose and the first kiss of the season, Michelle seemed smitten with the suitor all season long.
However, Michelle also fell in love with Brandon along the way, and she noticed some "red flags" with Nayte when he seemed unable to let his guard down in the final days of filming.
When describing how it would feel to lose Michelle to Brandon, Nayte simply put it as, "It would suck."
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Michelle's parents, LaVonne and Ephraim Young, even expressed to Michelle how Nayte didn't seem ready to get engaged and they were missing a "warmth" from him that they had felt with Brandon.
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LaVonne even told Nayte that while he was saying all of the right things, she wasn't feeling his words, and Nayte left the meeting with Michelle's parents a little deflated.
"If you think that I'm just saying things to say things, I mean, that's your opinion," Nayte told Us.
"I know that what I was saying was me just doing my best at trying to explain what was going on inside with all these new feelings, amazing feelings and exciting feelings."
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"Maybe I'm not the best at expressing myself," he added, "but Michelle got the point, so that's what matters."
Nayte has since won over Michelle's parents, and Michelle gushed on The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose how Nayte makes her feel beautiful on the inside and outside as well as reassures her now of his feelings for her every day.
"Obviously, there's this entire journey and then it's compacted into episodes," Michelle told Us, suggesting fans were unable to watch her full love story with Nayte.
"[While filming the show] you do have a little bit of this background information and you are there and it's just more of this thing where you kind of understand, regardless of what you choose or the decisions you make, you're not gonna be able to please everybody."
Michelle has therefore come around to the idea not everyone is going to be excited for her engagement with Nayte -- especially when Brandon appeared head-over-heels in love with the Bachelorette -- "and that's part of dating in the public eye."
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Michelle also apparently feels Nayte would have unavoidably received criticism from viewers no matter what, in one way or another.
"This man was not really smooth with his words, but if he was smooth with his words, then it's a red flag because he is, you know, a smooth talker," Michelle reasoned.
She noted, "It is what it is."
"And as long as you understand that, and as long as Nayte knows that I understand him -- we've learned how to communicate," Michelle revealed, adding that the couple will continue to learn how to communicate.
"And our families and our close friends know exactly who we are. Going into that, I think that's just kind of what I choose to focus on."
Nayte has also set out to prove he's in it with Michelle for the long haul. Not only has Nayte said he wants to marry Michelle "in the near future," but he also revealed on After the Final Rose that he'll be moving to Minnesota soon.
In fact, Michelle and Nayte have already begun house-hunting and The Bachelor family gifted the newly-engaged couple a down payment on their first house together during ATFR.
(Michelle was caught whispering to Nayte that the check, hidden inside a gingerbread house to celebrate the holidays, was for $200,000).
Michelle previously shared with People how she's falling more in love with Nayte every day as she continues to get to know him, and Nayte believes their relationship is going to last "forever" because they have the type of love everyone searches for.
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