‘Bachelorette’s Michelle Young says split with Nayte Olukoya “not something I foresaw”

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The Bachelorette alum Michelle Young is finally shedding some light on her breakup with season 18 winner Nayte Olukoya, a turn of events that left her blindsided.

“I will say this is not something that I foresaw and I’ll leave it there,” Michelle said during an appearance on Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti‘s Almost Famous podcast on Tuesday, adding that she has “good days” and “bad days” and is “leaning on…friends [and] family for support” as she navigates the breakup.

“Breakups suck. Breakups are awful,” she explaining that “what’s so difficult is that it sometimes feels like it’s not in your control. You wake up and you some days you just feel like, ‘OK, I just have to…give it time.”

“But it is this situation where I’m like, ‘This is not how the story ends for me.’ Where I’m at right now emotionally, mentally, like, how my heart feels — this is not how the story ends and I deserve to really make it to that point where I get those things.”

Nayte, meanwhile, has denied allegations that he was cheating on her, writing on his Instagram stories, “Not every breakup needs to have someone to blame. Yes, many of you seem to paint me as a red flag/ f*** boy … But I’m actually a decent guy, and I only want to continue getting better. As we should all want for ourselves,” according to Us Weekly.

Young and Olukoya, who got engaged during the December 2021 finale of The Bachelorette, announced their decision to end their relationship in respective statements on June 17.

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