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Joy also reacts to the many trolls referring to her as a "child bride" -- saying, "It's definitely weird to have so many people give you their opinions."
Nick Viall revealed he was skeptical about dating his now fiancee Natalie Joy due to their age difference.
During an appearance on The Squeeze podcast on Wednesday with the 24-year-old surgical technologist, the 42-year-old Bachelor Nation star revealed he asked to see his fiancee's ID before the two began their relationship.
"We started messaging, and I carded her," Viall recalled -- before Joy confirmed, "He was like, 'I want to see your ID.'" At the time, the Viall Files podcast host also told her the two "would never date" because "the age for me was something I was self conscious about."
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Despite his reservations, the couple did begin dating in the summer of 2020, after meeting in late 2019. According to Viall, Joy made the first move when she slid into his DMs; the pair later met in New York and the rest is history.
"She slid into my DMs. We messaged for a couple of weeks. We met up in New York," the reality star said. "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."
For Joy, there was no doubt that she and Viall were meant to be after their initial in-person meeting.
"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," she admitted. "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."
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Though the two eventually found common ground, their relationship has been met with much criticism on social media.
"It's definitely weird to have so many people give you their opinions," the Instagram model continued. "DMs of mean comments about [how] I'm a 'child bride' ... just terrible, terrible things people would call me."
In January, the couple announced they were engaged in a joint post to Instagram.
"For the rest of my life, it's you," the caption read alongside a photo of Viall kissing Joy's hand, which was adorned with a custom engagement ring.
