The Bachelorette alum Nayte Olukoya has admitted The Bachelor bubble was a “terrible” chapter of his life and the backlash he received for his breakup with Michelle Young really “f-cked” him up.
“I was broken — not heartbroken — but the online people, they definitely got to me,” Nayte said during a recent appearance on the “Bachelor Rush Hour With Dave Neal” podcast.
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“It’s kind of a blur. I try to block that whole chapter out of my life because it was terrible.”
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Michelle and Nayte got engaged on The Bachelorette’s Season 18 finale, which aired in December 2021. Michelle then moved back to Minnesota and Nayte returned to Austin, TX.
However, the pair never lived together or even moved to the same state, and they ultimately broke up and called off their engagement in June 2022.
Nayte claimed he was “getting abused online” by trolls and haters after his split from Michelle.
Nayte recalled of the days after he and his former fiancee parted ways, “I just hung out with [The Bachelorette 18 alum Rodney Mathews], hung out with my friends… I was just trying to live life. I stayed in L.A. [and took it] day by day until I felt it was better and safer.”
Nayte added, “That sh-t messed me up, man. That world is ruthless, man. That sh-t really f-cked me up, I’m not going to lie.”
Nayte previously revealed on “The Viall Files” podcast that he dumped Michelle over the phone in June 2022, only days after they had celebrated her birthday.
Nayte recalled writing up a breakup statement after ending things with Michelle and calling his mother to discuss whom they should surround themselves with once the public got wind of the split.
“We [decided] on good people with good energy, and then the people found out and they tried to ruin my life,” Nayte said.
Nayte told Dave Neal that people found out about their breakup about two weeks after he dumped Michelle.
“The breakup didn’t mess me up,” Nayte clarified, revealing how he actually felt a huge “weight lifted” off his shoulders and breathed “a crazy sigh of relief” once his engagement was over.
“I’m talking about the public reaction, which seriously f-cked with me.”
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Michelle admitted last year that she felt blindsided by Nayte’s choice to end their relationship, and so many fans wondered if Nayte had met someone else or was cheating on Michelle during their relationship.
Nayte therefore insisted he never cheated on Michelle via Instagram Stories in June 2022.
“No, I didn’t cheat,” Nayte wrote at the time.
“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.”
Nayte admitted at the time the “blatant hate” he was receiving was “hurtful” because he had joined The Bachelorette cast with “an open mind and an open heart” and really wanted to find his person.
“Yes, I truly believed Michelle was my person,” he claimed at the time.
During his conversation with Dave Neal, Nayte recalled fans bashing him online for his 2022 cheating denial.
“I literally posted a post addressing how I’m not a cheater and I didn’t cheat. I got clowned on online, just for saying I’m not a cheater,” Nayte shared.
“There was a picture of me paddleboarding with a girl next to me, and they didn’t know that that girl is literally my best friend’s fiancee, who I lived with. I lived with my best friend and that girl at the same time.”
Nayte claimed many fans also attacked him for a different photo of him paddleboarding with a big group of girls.
“[People] started making up rumors… Little do they know, those were Michelle’s friends from Minnesota who were coincidentally in Austin that weekend. They don’t even know what they’re basing it on,” Nayte said.
When The Bachelorette alum got “clowned on,” Nayte said he learned his lesson that he’d never defend himself on social media again.
“If enough people are talking sh-t about you online, you’re going to react,” Nayte admitted.
“Thankfully, that’s all gone now. I gave myself a year… I feel like most people don’t even remember.”
But because fans and the media were allegedly so harsh on the former bachelor, Nayte claimed he didn’t date again “for a while.” He said he just “didn’t feel comfortable” doing so in the public eye.
Nayte claimed on “The Viall Files” podcast in September 2022 that he had initially planned to move to Minnesota to be with Michelle in March of that year but back-to-back fights at the beginning of 2022 delayed his move.
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The couple continued fighting, according to Nayte, until their romance failed about six months after The Bachelorette 18 finale aired.
“[After the show], we started consistently and gradually going downhill, where we were just, like, it wasn’t sunshine and rainbows anymore,” Nayte claimed to Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall.
“I remember crying my heart out to [my mom and stepdad, saying], ‘I’m so frustrated and I have no idea what’s going on in this relationship.’ How can you be so sure about something and then just have it fall apart?”
Nayte said he felt pressure to be perfect since Michelle was a famous face and they were the new hot couple in Bachelor Nation at the time.
Nayte also said there were trust issues on his part, citing an incident when Michelle had allegedly suspiciously deleted a DM conversation with a famous male country singer.
The Bachelorette 18 winner also shared last year how he wanted “more of a partner and less of a coach” in his next relationship.
“I miss the Michelle I fell in love with, but I’m not sure I miss the Michelle I broke up with,” Nayte said in Fall 2022.
After Nayte officially dumped Michelle over the phone, he claimed that she blocked him on social media, which he thought was “a low blow” at the time.
But Nayte also raised eyebrows when he moved from Texas to Los Angeles a few weeks after his breakup with Michelle to pursue modeling.
Michelle told Celeb Secrets TV in September 2022, “You go through something and you think you know someone, and then more recently, [you realize you don’t].”
And the former teacher revealed to Ben and Ashley in February 2023 that she really “wanted the relationship to work” and had been “willing to put in work” for it.
“And I had the person take off… Both people have to be capable of [working on the relationship]. And so, for me, [my engagement] was yeah, I feel like that was literally kind of stripped away from me, so it pisses me off!” Michelle vented.
Despite their tumultuous romance and messy split, Michelle and Nayte have since moved on.
Michelle went Instagram official with new boyfriend Jack Leius in October 2023, and Nayte just revealed on Dave’s podcast that he has a girlfriend and is “in a relationship right now.”
Nayte shared, “I don’t do hookup culture. I’ve never been into that stuff, and I almost never reply to DMs. If I go to a bar and there’s a woman all over me, I’m like, ‘I’m going home by myself.’ It just doesn’t interest me… I’m the type of person, ‘Let’s meet out and about.'”
Nayte said he met his girlfriend organically and they’ve been together for a long time; however, he hasn’t posted about her on social media because he really values his privacy after his stint on The Bachelorette.
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.