Nick Viall: ENGAGED to Natalie Joy!

When we first met Nick Viall, he was pursuing Andi Dorfman on The Bachelorette.

The next time we checked on the Wisconsin native, he was seeking his perfect mate on The Bachelor Season 21.

His path to the altar might have been a bit more long and winding than expected, but the course of true love never did run smooth!

Nick announced on Thursday that he’s engaged to longtime girlfriend Natalie Joy.

The couple shared the news with a carousel of irreverent engagement photos.

Viall first revealed that he and Joy were dating during a 2021 episode of his Viall Files podcast.

“It’s fun. It’s great. I’m super happy,” he said at the time.

Nick went on to reveal that he met his future fiancee online.

“She slid into my DMs. It was very romantic.”

The pair eventually met in person and hit it off as friends, but interestingly, Nick was initially reluctant to take the leap and enter a relationship with Natalie.

“We kind of kept hanging out, and she finally got a point where she was like, ‘I want to date,’ and I was kind of like, ‘I don’t know,’” he said on a later episode of his pod.

“She just was like, ‘OK, this is what I want. It’s fine, no big deal, but I’m gonna go do my thing,’ and she did, and I was like, ‘What?!’ … She went and showed me exactly what I’d be missing.”

Throughout their relationship, Nick and Natalie both spoke openly about the importance of not concerning themselves with society’s expectations about the proper speed at which a relationship should progress.

“I think sometimes timelines can be a little bit dangerous about, you know, setting false expectations and reaching to a certain timeline and all of a sudden … [you] have other priorities,” Viall explained at one point.

“I just kind of tell people to just be careful about setting timelines. If they wanna set a time, it’s great, just make sure it’s mutual.”

Yes, Nick is no rookie when it comes to relationships.

In addition to all the dates he went on in front of ABC cameras, he’s also embarked on quite a few high-profile romances in the years since his career as a reality star came to an end.

Viall has dated January Jones and Corrine Olympios, but those flings never seemed to approach the seriousness of his relationship with Natalie.

Our sincere congrats go out to these two, and we wish them all the best as they embark on this next chapter in their lives.

We’re sure Nick will offer frequent updates about the wedding planning process on his popular podcast.

Nick Viall: ENGAGED to Natalie Joy! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip .