Michelle Young wasn’t convinced she’d find a partner back home in Minnesota, but that was before a mutual friend introduced her to fiancé Jack Leius.
“We were going through devastating breakups [and] we were in the same stage of our breakups as we were going through ‘Not ready met someone’ [to] ‘Ready to meet somebody’ and then those few steps back,” Young recalled of Leius during a January 2024 appearance on the “Almost Famous” podcast, noting there were many unseen connections between them. “We go to all the same bars … the lake he grew up on, my family fishes [there] 24/7.”
Leius, for his part, added that their eventual meet-cute resulted in the couple spending “four days together” and “dating by Sunday.”
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Young — who split from ex-fiancé Nayte Olukoya in June 2022 — went public with her and Leius’ romance in October 2023, and the pair got engaged one year later.
Scroll down to relive Young and Leius’ relationship timeline:
September 2023
Young took a party bus with friends to the Minnesota State Fair. Leius was one of the many pals featured in her social media recap video and she later shared a closeup of the pair holding a giant stuffed animal they seemingly won.
October 2023
“Hit the Jackpot with you 
,” Young captioned two photos with her man via Instagram, hard launching the relationship.
The teacher jetted off to Mexico with Leius that same month to celebrate a friend’s wedding. He was also seen in her video recap from a group outing to a Vikings game in October.
November 2023
“About the last few months … 
,” Young wrote via Instagram, recapping the early days of her relationship, including dinner with friends and family hang outs.
December 2023
Leius shared his own social media recap of his budding romance, captioning the snaps, “Like a pair of denim jeans,” to which Young commented, “Made just for me 
.” Later that month, the twosome enjoyed a getaway to the snow.
January 2024
Young brought Leius as her date to The Golden Wedding. As officiant Susan Noles cuddled up to Leius at the ceremony, Young teased, “Susan is trying to steal my man.” Young shared an Instagram Story video in which Noles joked, “I found a date, I found a date!” as she hugged Leius.
Young revealed she had a better solution, saying, “You can have your own season,” reminding her that Leius is “out” of the running for Noles’ possible suitors. “@thesusannoles for 2024 Golden Bachelorette so she’ll keep her hands off my man,” Young added.
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December 2024
The couple announced their engagement two months after Leius popped the question. After traveling to the Centennial Lakes in Minnesota for what she thought was a commercial shoot, Young was surprised to learn the gig was just a ruse for her partner to get down on one knee.
“I completely froze when I saw Jack standing in the middle of this beautiful flower arch of white roses,” Young told People of the October 2024 proposal. “I was fooled so badly that for a moment I thought the joke was that Jack was one of the male models that I would be working with at the shoot.”
Young told the outlet she “tried to say yes several times but was in shock that no words really came out,” adding, “There were a lot of happy tears and of course I said YES!”
