Former ‘Bachelor’ Lead Expecting First Child Months After Announcing Engagement

The Bachelor‘s Nick Viall is going to be a dad. The former ABC leading man, 42, and his fiancée Natalie Joy, 24, announced Tuesday that they are expecting their first child together after getting engaged in January. Posting maternity photos of Viall cradling the mother-to-be’s bump alongside a snap of the sonogram, the couple called having a child “our biggest dream came true.”

Viall and Joy first got together in 2020 and went public with their romance in 2021. The Viall Files podcast host first joined Bachelor Nation on Season 10 of The Bachelorette, where he was the runner-up for Bachelorette Andi Dorfman. In 2015, Viall found himself in the same position on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season before going on to attempt to find love on Bachelor in Paradise. In 2017, Viall’s Bachelor Nation journey continued when he was cast as the lead on The Bachelor, and at the end of his season, Viall became engaged to Vanessa Grimaldi. The two called off their engagement in 2017.

Some of Viall’s former Bachelor Nation flames were among the many to congratulate him on his big fatherhood news. “Awwww!!! Congrats to y’all!!” Dorfman wrote as Grimaldi commented, “Aww!!! Congratulations!!!!!” Other Bachelor Nation stars including Victoria Fuller, Serena Pitt, Hannah Ann Sluss and Ashley Iaconetti also left their well-wishes. “feel like I’ve been hiding this for centuries,” Fuller wrote, as Pitt added, “CONGRATS you two!! So happy for you both” Sluss gushed, “Omg!! Congratulations,” while Iaconetti cheered, “So so excited! We love you guys! These pics are [stunning]! This baby is so lucky!!”

Viall and Joy celebrated their three-year anniversary last month, with the reality personality referencing the family he and his fiancée were building together in a post he made with photos of their dog. “I love our family we’ve started together can’t wait to see how it grows,” he wrote. “Thanks for 3 incredible years and for always fighting for us. Can’t wait for the rest of our lives together.”

Viall had previously announced that he had bought back his family’s Wisconsin lake house that his grandfather built in 1965, calling it the place where he and Joy will “make new memories with our children.” “After losing the house 32 years ago, I finally brought it back in the family,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I had recurring dreams my entire life since we lost the house in 1990 about some how having the house back in our [family]. I always woke up. Im living a literal dream. No more waking up from this one.”