Jamie Skaar made quite the impression with Michelle Young on The Bachelorette, but it wasn't only for the right reasons.
On the ABC dating show's Tuesday, Oct. 26 episode, Jamie earned the first one-on-one date and had Michelle in tears as he shared that his mom struggled with mental health issues before her death by suicide when he was 24 years old. He earned the date rose, and they seemed to have immediate chemistry.
However, things took a turn later in the episode after Jamie was apparently bothered that Joe Coleman earned the MVP award, along with the rose, for the basketball group date. During last week's premiere, Michelle told co-hosts Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams that Joe, who is also from her home state of Minnesota, had previously exchanged some DMs with her but then ghosted her before she became the runner-up on Matt James' season of The Bachelor that aired earlier this year.
At the cocktail party, Jamie, who already had his rose, pulled Michelle aside and claimed that he and a number of the other guys had been speculating about how well she and Joe actually knew each other beforehand.
"There's been a whole bunch of talk today about this kind of feeling that maybe you might have known Joe before here," he said. "Given that this entire journey is about authenticity and about trust, and that that's the standard that's been set, I think that there's people out there that are questioning that."
He added that a friend from Minnesota had told him Michelle is "already boo'd up" and has "been out with a tall, light-skinned baller."
The conversation clearly stunned Michelle, as she told the camera she was "blindsided" and doesn't "know who believes in me and who doesn't."
She immediately approached the group of men to set the record straight. "What I want you guys to know is that that first night, when all of y'all walked in, was the first night that I was meeting every single one of you for the first time," the schoolteacher said. "Joe and I exchanged a few messages quite a few years back. We kind of joke about it now, but Joe ghosted me after two messages, and that was that."
Michelle continued, "Also, there's a rumor about me being spotted with a light-skinned basketball dude before the show. And being a woman of color in Minnesota, anytime I'm with a man of color, we're a couple. That's what everyone sees it as."
After Michelle left the room, the rest of the contestants appeared to be confused and couldn't recall having had conversations about Joe and Michelle's history. For his part, Joe never admitted to pulling Michelle aside. Ultimately, Michelle was too emotional to return to the cocktail party, and it was canceled.
During the rose ceremony, multiple men expressed frustration about the lack of time with Michelle during the brief cocktail party, including Clayton Echard, who has since been selected as the next Bachelor. "I'm very much on edge right now because I thought I was gonna get time, and I didn't," he told the camera just before receiving a rose.
Neither Michelle nor Jamie directly addressed the tension on social media after the episode aired. However, the Bachelorette referenced the drama by tweeting a screenshot of herself looking somber at the rose ceremony, along with the message, "The mood going into tonight's rose ceremony looks a lot like my serious teacher face..."
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.