Getting the last laugh. Bachelor Nation may have had plenty to say about Nayte Olukoya while season 18 of The Bachelorette was airing, but Michelle Young and her fiancé are confident in their relationship.
“Obviously, there’s this entire journey and then it’s compacted into episodes,” the 28-year-old teacher began on the Wednesday, December 22, episode of Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast. “[While filming the show] you do have a little bit of this background information and you are there and it’s just more of this thing where you kind of understand, regardless of what you choose or the decisions you make, you’re not gonna be able to please everybody. And that’s part of dating in the public eye.”
During the season, social media users often wondered whether Nayte, 27, was genuine, accused him of being cocky and questioned whether he was ready to propose.
“This man was not really smooth with his words, but if he was smooth with his words, then it’s a red flag because he is, you know, a smooth talker,” Michelle told Us. “It is what it is. And as long as you understand that, and as long as Nayte knows that I understand him, we’ve learned how to communicate. We will continue to learn how to communicate. And our families and our close friends know exactly who we are. Going into that, I think that’s just kind of what I choose to focus on.”
The Texas resident, who got down on one knee during the Tuesday, December 21, finale, admitted to Us that it’s “a little annoying” to have fans questioning him.
“[But] at the end of the day, it is just noise. It is just fluff. … I know who I am, Michelle knows who I am. Michelle was able to see me for me so early on. And that’s really all that matters,” he told Us. “If you think that I’m just saying things to say things, I mean, that’s your opinion. I know that what I was saying was me just doing my best at trying to explain what was going on inside with all these new feelings, amazing feelings and exciting feelings. Maybe I’m not the best at expressing myself, but Michelle got the point, so that’s what matters.”
While Nayte threw some subtle shade at the show on Tuesday via Instagram — calling out the “edit” of their love story — he couldn’t help but laugh when Us brought up an unaired moment in the trailer that suggested new Bachelor Clayton Echard thought he was an “actor.”
“I don’t think we know what happened,” Michelle said coyly about the deleted scene. “We have just as much information as everybody else.”
Nayte added, “I’m not sure who he was talking to, I’ll put it that way.”