The Bachelorette star Michelle Young apparently isn't letting her breakup with ex-fiance Nayte Olukoya keep her down.
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"Michelle showed up with a bestie looking absolutely radiant in a chocolate monokini, cover-up and silk hard scarf," a source told Us of the 29-year-old former elementary school teacher.
The Season 18 The Bachelorette star and "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast host "was in the best of spirits, sporting her megawatt smile," according to the source.
Michelle is stepping back out into the limelight after recently unfollowing Nayte, 27, on Instagram. It appears Nayte no longer follows his ex either. Fans are speculating Nayte and Michelle actually blocked each other.
While photos of Michelle remain on Nayte's Instagram page from their time on The Bachelorette together in 2021, Michelle wiped her account clean of Nayte, erasing any trace or memory of him.
Nayte proposed marriage to Michelle on The Bachelorette's Season 18 finale, which aired in December 2021, and ABC even gifted the couple a $200,000 down payment on a house.
But Michelle, who held down a job as a fifth-grade teacher in Minnesota, and Nayte, who lives in Houston, TX, never fully joined their lives together or moved to the same state, and so the long-distance couple announced their split on June 17 in separate Instagram postings.
Given Michelle had announced before the breakup that she'll be stepping out of the classroom in 2023, Ashley Iaconetti asked Michelle during a July 5 appearance on "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" if her big decision to stop teaching was an attempt to save her relationship with Nayte.
Ashley wondered if Michelle thought her career change would allow her to spend more time with Nayte or maybe even move to be closer to him.
"I think having the summer off and being able to step away from teaching, that would have happened, regardless of a relationship, regardless of influencing [or] whatever you want to call it," Michelle insisted.
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWMichelle said she "really needed to take a breath out of teaching," but she added, "Would that have resulted in spending more time with Nayte? Yeah, naturally."
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.
"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 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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"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."
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Nayte explained in June via social media how he and Michelle had decided not to move to the same city in order not to rush anything, according to the magazine.
"Plans changed as we decided there was no need to rush anything and get to know each other on a deeper level before taking the leap of living together," Nayte wrote via Instagram.
"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 on their phones.
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 explained 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]."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
