The Bachelorette winner Nayte Olukoya has suggested Michelle Young changed during their relationship and also confirmed she blocked him on social media, which he called "a low blow," after their split.
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"I miss the Michelle I fell in love with, but I'm not sure I miss the Michelle I broke up with."
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In terms of what he wants in his next relationship, Nayte shared, "I definitely want to be with somebody where we can have fun... The most fun I've ever had was in the beginning of my relationship with Michelle."
He added, "I want to have more of a partner, and less of, like, a coach."
Nayte proposed marriage to Michelle on The Bachelorette's Season 18 finale, which aired in December 2021, and the couple appeared blissfully happy. They were even gifted a $200,000 check for a down payment on their first house.
However, Nayte never moved to Michelle's hometown in Minnesota like they had originally planned, and Nayte said the pair ended up calling it quits after Michelle's birthday in early June.
A week or so later, Nayte and Michelle publicly announced their breakup on June 17 via separate statements on their Instagram accounts.
Speculation then swirled that Michelle blocked Nayte on Instagram.
"The background of that is an upsetting story, but yeah, she blocked me. She blocked me," Nayte confirmed.
"And I don't think I want to go into, like, the nitty-gritty of that, but that was kind of a low blow -- because we were on the phone. So it was weird."
Nayte claimed he had no idea why Michelle chose to block him.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"I remember she called me after and she was like, 'I didn't know I blocked you. I don't know the difference between a block and unfollow.' And I was just like, 'This looks so bad.' And of course people went crazy after she blocked me," Nayte recalled.
"But you know what? Breakups suck, and at the end of the day, you've gotta do what you gotta do."
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Nayte insisted that he didn't want to insult Michelle, but he said their relationship "shifted" very quickly after their engagement aired on ABC.
"I fell in love with this woman and then, like, I'm not saying that she changed into this terrible person, but it just wasn't the same super quick," Nayte told Nick.
Nayte claimed he and Michelle had trust issues and insecurity also played a big role in the demise of their relationship.
Nayte said while he still thinks "the world" of Michelle and has always told everyone she is "fantastic," their relationship got bumpy once they began "going into the everyday motions" of their lives in the real world vs. a televised world.
According to the bachelor, he and Michelle had their first "really big fight" on January 1.
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"And I was so freaked out... I remember it was 3AM and I drive to an empty parking lot, and I was up until 6AM crying on the phone to [Rodney Mathews]. It was just so weird, because again, I don't know what happened."
Nayte compared his relationship to puzzle pieces with warped edges that just stopped fitting together, and he allegedly told Michelle that he was freaked out following their first two fights.
"I had the first conversation with [Michelle], like, 'Hey, I want to be honest with you. After this last week, I am starting to doubt this relationship.' But I wasn't just going to quit. I said, 'Let's continue putting in the effort and let's continue,'" Nayte recalled of their romance in early January.
Nayte -- who lived in Michelle's Minneapolis apartment for one month -- said their plan was for him to move to Minnesota permanently in March, but he decided to stay in Austin, TX, because of their fighting.
"I was like, 'I want to be honest. I want to figure this out before I move to Minnesota. I think we should put the moving conversation on hold right now while we figure out this relationship and figure out this compatibility,'" Nayte said.
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Nayte claimed he wanted to spend his life with Michelle but realized they really needed to focus on their relationship, communication styles, and compatibility.
"We just started consistently and gradually going down hill... It started off so great and then, like, somewhere, we just stopped clicking. The communication broke down... It wasn't sunshine and rainbows anymore... How can you be so sure about something and then just have it fall apart?" Nayte lamented.
Despite some "amazing moments" here or there, Nayte confirmed his relationship with Michelle continued to be "rocky" all the way until their June split.
"It wasn't like I just woke up one morning and was like, 'You know what? I want to break up with Michelle.' No, there was a lot of thought, and long nights, and a lot of tears and a lot of, just, reason behind why I broke up with her," Nayte said.
"I think we were genuinely two different people from completely different worlds."
The Bachelorette alum added that his relationship with Michelle was "tainted" by their noticeable differences and "so many different things."
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"The pressures of being the Bachelorette, I think that truly did play a role in Michelle [changing]. Michelle is the most put-together person I've ever met. You saw her on TV. She is phenomenal, like, she's just so put together, so political, so well spoken -- a very impressive woman."
He continued, "And I think there were pressures of being the Bachelorette that once we left that world, I kind of just wanted to be two normal people."
Nayte explained how there was "always this background pressure to be as perfect as possible."
"I was like, 'Let's just be ourselves,'" he said. "And I think that played a role into us not seeing eye-to-eye. I'm just a regular dude from Austin with his dog who works in tech sales and she's just a teacher. And then all of a sudden, she's the Bachelorette and we're engaged and all this extra stuff."
Nayte apparently just wanted to be Nayte and Michelle, and they just couldn't do that.
"I think we were both drained and apologizing just because [we were] tired... This sucks to talk about and this is hard, but at the end of the day, I think Michelle and I can go to bed knowing that... it was the right thing to do," Nayte told Nick.
"We just weren't right for each other," he concluded.
Nayte previously insisted he never cheated on Michelle, who confirmed that she never saw the breakup coming.
As for what's next for the former couple, Michelle announced in late May that she's planning to step out of the classroom in 2023 in order to take a breather from teaching and exit "survival mode."
Michelle said she wants to try new things and pursue different goals, such as being a social-media influencer.
And a source told Us Weekly last month that Nayte reportedly moved to Los Angeles a couple of weeks after the breakup to pursue a career as a model.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
