What Michelle Young Wants to Do With $200,000 Check After Nayte Olukoya Breakup

After getting engaged on The Bachelorette, Michelle Young and Nayte Olukoya received a $200,000 check for a down payment on a house. What happens now that they've split? Read her answer.

By Elyse Dupre Jul 06, 2022 7:59 PMTags
Watch: "Bachelorette" Michelle Young & Nayte Olukoya's Red Carpet Debut

Michelle Young is answering Bachelor Nation's "million-dollar question": Now that she and Nayte Olukoya have broken up, what happens to the $200,000 check they received for a down payment on a house

"That was money that was gifted to both of us," she said on the July 5 episode of The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast, "and I think that's something that is going to be decided how that's going to be utilized going forward." 

While Michelle said she hasn't made any final calls, she suggested she would like to use the money for a good cause.

"For me personally, I haven't officially decided, but I kind of have started putting some different things in place to give back, to build an organization or just promote the change that I've been talking about," the former teacher continued. "I think that would be something that I'd feel really good about." 

Still, she acknowledged it's been an "emotional" time deciding what to do with the check. "I've been crying on the phone with one of the producers and like, 'Can I give this money? Like, can I create this to give the money to somebody else?' It's something that I feel good about. I know that's been the million-dollar question—no pun intended. But, yeah, it's been a lot."

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Bachelor Nation's Still-Rosy Romances

Michelle and Nayte, who got engaged on season 18 of The Bachelorette, received a check from the Bachelor family for a down payment on their first home together on After the Final Rose in December. But six months after the episode aired, they announced their decision to go their separate ways. 

When asked on the podcast if she saw the breakup coming after The Bachelorette wrapped or if the split was sudden, Michelle indicated it wasn't something she had predicted.

"Where I'm struggling with this piece is it's like you never know how much to say, you never know how to handle it, you never know how it's going to be taken," she said. "But I will say that this is not something that I foresaw, and I'll leave it there."

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Michelle previously acknowledged "having a relationship in the public eye has not been easy" but made it clear that their love was "very real."

"To you, Nayte, you quickly became my best friend and the love I have for you is incredibly strong," she wrote in her June 17 Instagram post announcing the split. "I will never stop wanting to see you succeed." 

Nayte echoed Michelle's sentiments in his own post, noting 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." 

"We genuinely fell in love, and we genuinely became each other's best friends," he later added. "Michelle and I will always cheer each other on, but moving forward, we will be cheering from a distance."

He also addressed why they hadn't moved in together. Nayte said in a June Instagram post he'd initially intended to relocate from Texas to Michelle's home state of Minnesota but that their plans changed as they "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 also shut down any rumors of him being unfaithful. "No, I didn't cheat," he wrote in part of his message. "Not every breakup needs to have someone to blame."

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