Bachelor fans have long been split on the subject of Nick Viall.
Some are charmed by the reality star-turned-podcaster, while others find his brash, outspoken demeanor to be more than a little off-putting.
But regardless of how they previously felt about Nick, pretty much everyone agrees that his current relationship is more than a little creepy.
Back in January, we reported that Viall had gotten engaged to Natalie Joy.
At the time, details of the relationship were hard to come by.
Natalie was an unknown non-celeb prior to the announcement, so everything we knew about her came from Nick.
According to the narrative offered by the lovebirds, Natalie was a surgical tech who pursued Nick relentlessly despite his repeated insistence that they should remain friends.
What Nick and Natalie conveniently left out at the time was the fact that he’s 18 years older than her.
Once word got out that Nick is 42 and Natalie is 24, fans reacted with various levels of revulsion.
These days, the couple is in damage control mode, as they attempt to convince everyone that there’s nothing weird about the fact that Natalie was in high school while Nick was auditioning potential wives on The Bachelor.
The latest stop on Nick and Natalie’s media tour is the “Squeeze” podcast hosted by Taylor Lautner and his wife Tay Lautner.
“We started messaging, and I carded her,” Nick told the Tays.
“He was like, ‘I want to see your ID,’” Joy recalled.
“The age for me was something I was self conscious about,” Viall chimed in.
“It’s definitely weird to have so many people give you their opinions,” Joy admitted.
“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.”
The couple’s comments echo remarks they made during a recent appearance on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“At first, it was something I think I was having a lot of anxiety about,” Nick said of the age difference. “You know, like, ‘Are we going to be compatible?’ And I think early on that was part of the things I would worry about.”
“We realized we were on the same stages of life and we were ready for the same things … I’m in a place where I want to get married and have children and he’s also in that same place,” Joy chimed in.
“We both have big careers and aspirations and jobs and stuff that we both love.”
Nick and Natalie definitely seem a little self-conscious about their age difference.
But we guess that’s only natural given the amount of criticism they’ve received.
Hopefully, these two will learn to ignore the haters as they enter the continue the exciting process of planning their wedding!
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