The Bachelorette alum Michelle Young has revealed that she never saw her breakup with Nayte Olukoya coming.
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But Michelle, who resides in Minnesota, and Nayte, who lives in Houston, TX, never fully joined their lives together, and so the long-distance couple announced their split on June 17 in different Instagram postings.
Less than one month after calling off their engagement, Michelle opened up to Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti about how she's coping during the July 5 episode of their "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast."
"I will say this is not something that I foresaw and I'll leave it there," Michelle said of her split from Nayte.
Michelle spoke with a soft and shaky voice, recalling how she's had "good days" and "bad days" since announcing the breakup, with emotional highs and lows coming "in waves."
"It's been quite a transition, I would say, just because this year, I decided to step away from the classroom this following school year just because I've been so burned out and just really wanting to, you know, get out of that survival mode," Michelle explained.
"I kind of feel like life has taken this thing as like, 'Okay, challenge accepted. Now, here, deal with a breakup.' It's definitely not something that I planned to have to work through this summer, but I definitely have the understanding that, like, sometimes we have to work through things that we did not plan for or that were not in our life plans."
Michelle noted how "breakups suck" and "breakups are awful."
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"They hurt, right? And I think what's so difficult is that it sometimes feels like it's not in your control," Michelle shared.
"You wake up and sometimes there are days when you just feel like, 'Okay, I just have to have time pass... Give it time,' but like, you can't always speed up that time. You can't always speed up healing. You can put in the work, but you can't always speed it up."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWBut Michelle insisted this is not the way her story is going to end.
"Where I'm at right now emotionally, mentally, like, how my heart feels -- this is not how the story ends," Michelle confirmed. "And I deserve [more]."
The former elementary school teacher added how she's been "leaning on my friends [and] family for support," which has been "helpful."
"[Becca Kufrin] and other Bachelorettes [are] reaching out that kind of have been through situations like this. And I feel like I've been able to reach out to different people depending on what I needed," Michelle said.
"For example, Becca has been through a public relationship ending, you know, Rachel Lindsay, and [Tayshia Adams] and [Kaitlyn Bristowe], have all been through this, and they're able to offer certain advice."
Michelle also noted how her nearest and dearest friends really know who she is and are able to give great words of wisdom.
"They just get me. They get what hurts, they get my responses to certain things, and they're able to sit there and kind of help me sort through things," Michelle told Ben and Ashley.
"And so it's been hard. It's been very emotional, and there's been a lot of waves of things, but to have family and friends who go on those waves with you and are willing to take in those waves with you has been just incredible."
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In late June, Nayte denied ever cheating on Michelle as fans continue to speculate what went wrong in their relationship and led to their split.
"No, I didn't cheat," Nayte wrote via Instagram Stories on June 25, according to Us Weekly.
"Not every breakup needs to have someone to blame. Yes, many of you seem to paint me as a red flag/ f-ck boy... But I'm actually a decent guy, and I only want to continue getting better. As we should all want for ourselves."
When Nayte first announced his split from Michelle, he wrote on Instagram Stories, "When we both started this journey, we were looking for our Soulmates. Our forever. Our best friends. However, as we grow and learn, we also realize that sometimes somebody that you hold dear to your heart isn't somebody that you're meant to spend the rest of your life with."
"Michelle and I are going to move forward separately. Hearts are heavy, emotions are high, and we are dealing with this the best way we can," he continued.
Nayte then said his "heartbreak is real" and the couple would be keeping the details of their split private. He also defended the genuineness of their relationship, which ended only six months after the finale of their The Bachelorette season aired last year.
In Michelle's statement, she thanked Bachelor Nation for their support and noted how having a relationship in the public eye was not easy.
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"I'm struggling to say that Nayte and I will be going our separate ways but I stand with him in knowing the heaviness that is present in both our hearts as this relationship has been very real for us," she wrote last month.
"To you, Nayte," she added, "you quickly became my best friend and the love I have for you is incredibly strong. I will never stop wanting to see you succeed."
"I will always acknowledge and appreciate the adventures, support, and growth both Nayte and this experience have brought me. At the same time, I'm deeply hurting and will need time and space to work through this heartbreak."
Nayte explained last month via social media how he and Michelle had decided not to move to the same city in order not to rush anything, according to Us.
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"There's no rush in life. There's no rule book or timeline on how to go about your relationship. We believed that since the love was there, everything would fall into place naturally and in its own time."
"We tried," he added. "It didn't work. We're sad about it. We all grieve different."
Michelle and Nayte's split announcement came only a few weeks after Michelle took to Instagram on May 30 to deny rumors that The Bachelorette couple had split up and ended their engagement.
Michelle was spotted without her engagement ring on, but Michelle said her friend had tried on her ring momentarily and she's not a "zoo exhibit" for people to watch and record.
In April, Michelle had said 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 the magazine at the time.
"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]."
Prior to her The Bachelorette stint, Michelle competed on Matt James' season of The Bachelor and finished as his runner-up.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
