Nayte Olukoya, Michelle Young, and Deandra Kanu. Shutterstock (3)
What’s really going on with Nayte Olukoya following his split from Michelle Young? Us Weekly has an exclusive update about the Bachelorette season 18 winner one month after his broken engagement rocked Bachelor Nation.
“Nayte moved to Los Angeles two weeks ago. It’s something that’s been in the back of his mind for some time,” a source tells Us, noting that he’s sharing a place with fellow Bachelorette season 18 contestant Rodney Mathews. “Nayte wants to get into modeling. He’s still doing tech sales so modeling would be more of a hobby.”
The source adds, “He’s enjoying the summer, getting to spend time with friends and getting situated in L.A. He’ll be doing more traveling like to Cancun in August.”
Olukoya, 28, and Young, 29, announced their split last month and it wasn’t long before he was linked to Deandra Kanu following photos of the Bachelor season 24 alum wearing his necklace at his birthday party in July. According to the source, however, “there’s absolutely nothing going on between Nayte and Deandra.”
“Him giving her his necklace to wear was just a friendly gesture,” the source insists. “Nayte is single and happy that way — he’s not looking to jump into another relationship right away. He’s not dating and he’s not on the prowl. He’s happy being single.”
Mathews and Kanu aren’t Olukoya’s only pals in Bachelor Nation, however. He reunited with Young’s runner-up — Brandon Jones — at CELSIUS Energy Drink’s Arctic Vibe: Sparkling Frozen Berry launch party and Joia Beach in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, July 21. According to an eyewitness, the men appeared to be “good friends” and enjoyed Zedd’s DJ set at the bash.
Prior to his relocation from Texas to California, Olukoya planned to move to Minnesota to be with Young after their proposal aired on the December 2021 finale of The Bachelorette. After news of their split broke in June, he addressed the fact that he never made the move.
“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,” he wrote via Instagram Stories. “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. It didn’t work. We’re sad about it. We all grieve different.”
Young, for her part, has been candid about having good and bad days following the breakup. During an appearance on the “Almost Famous” podcast earlier this month, she hinted that she was blindsided by the split.
“I will say this is not something that I foresaw and I’ll leave it there,” the former teacher said.
Bachelorette season 18 cohost Kaitlyn Bristowe echoed her comments on her “Off the Vine” podcast earlier this month.
“She was confused because I think it was, like, after her birthday, and she was like, ‘Wait, what?’ I don’t know what happened,” Bristowe, 37, said. “I don’t know this for a fact — it’s just in my opinion. I’m like, ‘Did he just, like, like the attention, or did he find someone else?’ Because it did feel abrupt.”
With reporting by Diana Cooper
