Posting to Instagram Stories, former Bachelorette Michelle Young explained that having her “relationship in the public eye” was a part of the reason she and Nayte Olukoya have 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 of our hearts as this relationship has been very real for us,” Young wrote on her Instagram Story(via Us Weekly). “I’m deeply hurting and will need time and space to work through this heartbreak,” she explained. In addition to the statement of their relationship ending, Young also wrote a message to her now former fiancé, saying he was her “best friend” and that her love for him remains. Young added that she will always “appreciate” the experience of “The Bachelorette” and it bringing Olukoya to her.
Echoing a similar sentiment on his Instagram Story(via Us Weekly), Olukoya wrote that with time, “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.” Young and Olukoya aren’t the only “Bachelorette” cast members to experience heartbreak in recent memory, as Zac Clark and Tayshia Adams also ended their engagement in November. Riley Christian and Maurissa Gunn of “Bachelor in Paradise”also called it quits in January.