Even while admitting it’s not her story to tell, Kaitlyn Bristowe has thoughts on the breakup between Season 18 Bachelorette Michelle Young and her former fiancé Nayte Olukoya.
“I don’t want to speak for Michelle because it’s her story and it’s his story and whatever, but I’ve obviously talked to her and I’m there for her, of course,” Kailtyn said, as reported by US Magazine. “I was there for her through her whole experience.”
The Canada native cohosted Michelle‘s Bachelorette season alongside Tayshia Adams, which ended in December 2021 with Michelle and Nayte‘s engagement. In June, however, the schoolteacher confirmed that the engagement was over and the couple had called it quits.
“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,” Michelle announced on Instagram at the time. “I’m deeply hurting and will need time and space to work through this heartbreak.”
According to Kaitlyn, Michelle was “definitely blindsided” by the breakup. “She was confused because I think it was, like, after her birthday, and she was like, ‘Wait, what?'” the Season 29 Dancing with the Stars champ explained. “I don’t know what happened.”
Still, Kaitlyn has been trying to make sense of what could have gone wrong with the couple’s relationship. “I don’t know this for a fact — it’s just in my opinion,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Did he just, like, like the attention, or did he find someone else?’ Because it did feel abrupt.”
Earlier this month, Michelle confirmed that she was surprised by the breakup, though she didn’t go into detail about the cause of the split. “I will say this is not something that I foresaw and I’ll leave it there,” she explained.
The former basketball player also noted that the’s had “good days” and “bad days” since the split. The decision she made to step back from teaching this year has given her the time to breathe and process the breakup.
“It’s been quite a transition, I would say,” Michelle explained. “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. I kind of feel like life has taken this thing as like, ‘OK, challenge accepted . . . [now] deal with a breakup.’ It’s definitely not something that I planned to have to work through this summer.”
TELL US- DO YOU THINK IT’S OKAY FOR KAITLYN TO BE PUBLICLY SPEAKING ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE’S BREAKUP? WHY DO YOU THINK KAITLYN SEEMS SO INVESTED IN IT?
[Photo Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images]
