Nick Viall and Wife Natalie Joy Facing Backlash for Insensitive Interview With ‘Southern Charm’ Star Austen Kroll

Nick Viall and Natalie Joy are facing major backlash for what fans have dubbed a particularly insensitive podcast interview with Southern Charm star Austen Kroll.

The Bravo personality appeared on The Viall Files this week, sitting down with the former Bachelor star and his wife for an hour-plus chat, but about 10 minutes into the interview, Joy broached the topic of the death of Kroll’s older sister in a way that made listeners uncomfortable.

“Quickly jumping out of Southern Charm … but going into your childhood, I didn’t know this about your sister passing at 9,” she said, referring to the 1994 death of Kroll’s sister, Kyle Kroll, who fell off a cliff while on a hike with her family.

“Sorry and you obviously don’t have to answer … my question is … how did your family, because you’re obviously so close to your family, your parents and Katie. How did you family keep y’all together during that time?” she continued, as viewers noticed Kroll began to look uncomfortable.

Kroll answered that the birth of his younger sister Katie was the “biggest blessing” for his family after the difficult time.

Joy later asked Kroll, “Were you there when she fell?” to which he responded that he was. She then doubled down by asking, “What was this cliff?”

Kroll declined to provide the location of the cliff, simply saying that the town “got wiped off the map by a hurricane and there’s no love lost with my family on that one.”

The line of questioning ended with Viall asking if Kroll had felt the impact of his sister’s death “creep up and affect you throughout your life.” The reality TV personality responded that his therapist believes that it was that early tragedy that plays into his fear of commitment now as an adult.

While the interview moved on from there, the exchange quickly went viral, with Kroll’s Southern Charm co-star Rodrigo Reyes commenting on a post about Joy’s line of questioning, “She’s a POS.”

Others agreed, with one commenter writing under the YouTube video of the podcast, “Natalie, that was the most unprofessional and rude segway into a question about his sister I’ve ever seen. Extremely insensitive. This is the problem with any influencer having a podcast, maybe get some training on how to do your job professionally and with class.”

“You guys could not be more careless with your words,” another person added. “[Austen] was so kind as you both were so careless and flippant about his grief.”

“That was vile,” a third added. “We’ve seen this man in TEARS when he talks about his sister on tv. And you just jump in like it’s a question about a ham sandwich. The truth is not everyone is meant to have a podcast. It’s time to sunset this very average s—t. What happened today was gross and a public apology to Austen is necessary.”

Viall and Joy have yet to weigh in on the critiques, and Kroll has also not commented on the interview.