Bring the last rose!
Former Bachelor Nick Viall has found lasting love with longtime girlfriend Natalie Joy. The couple announced they were engaged in a joint Instagram post shared on Thursday.
“For the rest of my life it’s you,” Viall, 42, captioned the post, which included several engagement photos of the couple. In one photo, Viall is seen kissing his fiancee’s hand while Joy poses for the camera and in another she shows off her engagement ring.
The pair were met with wishes in the comments of the post. “Hey! Congratulations,” Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave wrote while Vanderpump Rules cast member Ariana Madix said: “Congratulations! Cheers to you both.”
Viall and Joy were first linked in 2020, but didn’t start sharing their relationship publicly until 2021. At the time, a source told PEOPLE that “she’s great for him.”
For the first time, he addresses the relationship news on his Vial files podcast, Viall said in February 2021, “It’s fun. It’s great. I’m super happy.”
Without sharing too many details about Joy, Viall also revealed that the two met online. “She slipped into my DMs. It was very romantic,” he recalled.
The couple finally decided to make things official after spending some time together in person.
“We kept seeing each other and she finally got to the point where she said, ‘I want to go on a date,’ and I was kind of like, ‘I don’t know,'” he revealed. “She just said, ‘Okay, this is what I want. It’s fine, no big deal, but I’m going to do my thing,’ and she did it, and I was like, ‘What?!’ … She went and showed me exactly what I was going to miss.”
Following the publication, the couple continued to share more insights into their relationship.
Joy posted a series of photos of the couple on Valentine’s Day 2022, writing: “I am so lucky to feel incredibly loved every day that Valentine’s Day is just another Monday, with more flowers and chocolate covered strawberries of course.”
That same week, the surgical technologist called Viall her “dream man” on Instagram.
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As their relationship continued to take a more serious turn, Viall said he “wouldn’t be in a relationship with” Joy if he “didn’t think it would be possible” to marry her one day. Then he revealed to PEOPLE every day podcast last year that “everyone has a different situation” when it comes to marriage.
“I think sometimes timelines can be a bit dangerous, you know, setting false expectations and reaching a certain timeline and all of a sudden… [you] they have other priorities,” he previously explained. “I’m just telling people to be careful with their timelines. If they want to set a time, that’s great, just make sure it’s mutual.”
