The former winner of The Bachelorette — who stole Michelle Young‘s heart on her season helming the leading role — took to Instagram over the weekend to deliver his side of the story. Of course, as we’ve previously reported, the 27-year-old hunk and the 29-year-old schoolteacher suddenly called it quits on their engagement earlier this month. But despite controversies dogging the ex-couple for a while now, infidelity was apparently NOT an issue here!

Related: Is ‘The Bachelor’ Over At This Point??

So says Nayte, at least, in a since-expired IG Stories Q&A session from Saturday. In his message to fans on the app, the Canadian tried to preemptively walk back any controversies, first writing:

“No, I didn’t cheat. Not every breakup needs to have someone to blame. Yes, many of you seem to paint me as a red flag/f**k boy … But I’m actually a decent guy, and I only want to continue getting better. As we should all want for ourselves.”

Struggling with the public-facing nature of the split, Olukoya admitted that the “negativity” and “blatant hate” both he and Young have received has been “hurtful.”

He did give the Minnesota resident a nice shoutout in his message, adding:

“I went on the show with no expectations. Just an open mind and an open heart. But figured if I find my person, then thank God I went. Yes, I truly believed Michelle was my person.”

Still, things obviously didn’t work out between Olukoya and Young. Nayte readily admits that in his reflections on their relationship, explaining:

“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. 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.”

Very mature!

And he concluded:

“We tried. It didn’t work. We’re sad about it. We all grieve different.”

So it goes sometimes.

Here is the full post from the ex-Bachelorette star (below):

Whew.

By the way, Olukoya has changed his Instagram bio, too, removing “THE Michelle Young Fan Account” from his descriptors. That was cute when it was up, but with the relationship over and all, well… FWIW, as of Monday evening, he still hasn’t deleted their joint photos from his account.

Reactions, Perezcious readers??

[Image via Nayte Olukoya/Michelle Young/Instagram]