Michelle Young has been single for about six months.
But now? After all this time and all this pain?
The former Bachelorette sounds ready to truly, officially and deeply mingle.
“I really did the work early on, and it’s a lot when so much is going on outside of you,” Young told Life & Style at the iHeart Jingle Ball red carpet in Los Angeles on Friday, December 2.
Referring to what was clearly a challenging split from Nayte Olukoya in June, Michelle added:
“You have to heal otherwise, you are going to constantly — like, your emotions depend on what is happening.”
Following a typical Bachelorette-related journey, Nayte proposed to Michelle on the latter’s season finale… only for the engagement to get called off this summer.
“To those who have supported Nayte and I, including Bachelor Nation, I know I speak for the both of us when saying having a relationship in the public eye has not been easy,” the 29-year old wrote via her Instagram Story by way of confirmation awhile back.
“I’m struggling to say that Nayte and I will be going out 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 went on to address her ex and tell him that she’ll never stop “wanting to see you succeed,” making the break-up sound quite amicable.
For his part, Nayte eventually admitted that he dumped Young by phone — because she may have cheated on him.
Yikes.
“Michelle and I, the beginning of that relationship was probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced.
“We had so much fun. … I miss the Michelle that I fell in love with. I’m not sure I miss the Michelle I broke up with” Olukoya previously said on the Viall Files podcast, adding:
“We had amazing moments in between rockiness, but it was rocky.”
Young hasn’t spilled very much tea in public about what caused the split.
But she did tell Life & Style that it’s been hard navigating everything in public since her relationship ended.
“There’s so much noise going on,” she said late last week.
“Whether it’s from that person that you broke up with, whether it’s from everybody else around you, but you really truly have to be so confident in yourself.
“Sticking to what you know, being who you are, never wavering from that.”
For the record, the Minnesota native says she is dating once again… but it’s hard to get perspective after being on The Bachelorette.
“It’s really weird because, you know, you sit down and you’re like, ‘OK, so are we getting married in like two weeks?’” Michelle explained of this contrast.
“You know, like should we talk about our favorite colors, or should we talk about how many kids we want on the first date?
“It’s just a really weird balance because The Bachelor world is so quick. It’s been going well.”
Young, who said she’s grown close to recent Bachelorette Rachel Recchia, emphasized to the aforementioned outlet that she’s trying to maintain a low dating profile.
This means no dalliances with anyone else from the Bachelor or Bachelorette universe. Not yet at least.
“I’ll never close the door to anything, but definitely outside [Bachelor Nation],” Young said on this subject,
“It’s just, kind of, like a breath of fresh air.”