Nick Viall Talks 18-Year Age Gap with Fiancee Natalie Joy, Reveals He 'Carded' Her Before They Dated

Nick Viall and fiancee Natalie Joy are addressing their 18-year age gap.

The 42-year-old Bachelor Nation star and Natalie, 24, first met online in late 2019 when he was 38 and she was 20.

In a new interview, Nick admitted that he was a bit taken aback by how young Natalie was and turned her down “so many times” before they eventually started dating.

Keep reading to find out more…

“We started messaging [online], and I carded her,” Nick revealed on Taylor Lautner & wife Tay Dome‘s podcast The Squeeze. “I wanted to make sure she was a real person.”

“He was like, ‘I want to see your ID,’” Natalie confirmed.

“The age for me was something I was self conscious about,” Nick added, revealing that he told Natalie early on that they “would never date.”

Despite initial hesitations, Nick and Natalie decided to start dating in the summer of 2020 after first crossing paths online in late 2019.

“She slid into my DMs. We messaged for a couple of weeks. We met up in New York,” Nick recalled. “I think we were both thinking the other person was a little crazy. We kind of both knew we’d end up spending the weekend together. I think we were both pretty guarded.”

Natalie then added that she knew Nick was The One right from the start.

“I knew after that weekend, I was like, ‘I’m going to spend the rest of my life with this man.’ And I knew it and he didn’t,” Natalie recalled. “So I was like, ‘I’m just going to hang on because he’ll come around.’ So I asked him several times to date me.”

Despite their age gap, Nick and Natalie were able to find common ground in their relationship, but Natalie revealed that she has received a lot of negativity about their relationship on social media.

“It’s definitely weird to have so many people give you their opinions,” Natalie said. “DMs of mean comments about [how] I’m a ‘child bride’ … just terrible, terrible things people would call me.”

She continued, “I was like, I am going to spend the rest of my life with this man, and I knew it and he didn’t, so I was like, I’m gonna hang on because he’ll come around.”

After officially going public with their relationship in February 2021, Nick and Natalie got engaged in January 2023.

Nick and Natalie aren’t the only celeb couple with a large age gap.