By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 9, 2023
Former Bachelor star turned podcaster Nick Viall announced that he’s expecting his first child with his fiancée Natalie Joy on Tuesday.
“Our biggest dream came true,” they wrote in the caption of a collaborative Instagram carousel, with a sonogram picture between two pictures of the couple posing in a field. The pregnancy announcement comes just seven months after they announced their engagement, also with an Instagram post.
Meanwhile, former Bachelorette star turned podcaster Kaitlyn Bristowe (who actually has a messy history with Viall) announced her split from fiancé and fellow Bachelor Nation alum Jason Tartick earlier this week via, you guessed it, a collaborative Instagram post. Did Instagram invent the collaborative function specifically for this purpose? I think yes.
“After sharing the news with family and close friends first, and taking the time to properly process it ourselves, we are saddened with heavy hearts to share that we have decided to end our engagement,” reads the caption. “We are thankful for all of you who have gave us the time and space to process this life altering decision as there are many emotions and changes to navigate.”
Bristowe talked about the breakup, and how it has affected her relationship with social media, with therapist Jenny Wise Black on Tuesday’s episode of her Off the Vine podcast.
“We both are public figures, we both came from the same show. We have all these followers who we’ve let in and we’ve invited them into our lives and our relationship and our home, what we’re doing morning, afternoon, and night. It’s become part of business, but also I feel I’m supposed to entertain.”
What if your business is sharing your relationship, and that relationship ends? What then?
“It’s a loss, it’s grief. You’re going through the thought of losing somebody, all of these big emotions and now these people are on the other end of this phone, expecting you to share it with them while you’re going through it,” she said, explaining that “holding so much responsibility” to her followers has been “affecting my mental health so much.” She also admitted that the whole thing has her reconsidering whether or not she wants to have children.
“I have a huge fear of having kids because of all of this, because of what life could look like in 10 years with all the things we’re talking about…Each year that goes on, I get more and more terrified to have kids. And then there’s shame around that too.”
For now, she’s taking a break from social media, but with the Bachelor Nation business model relying so much on Instagram and podcasts these days, I don’t think she’ll be gone for long.