Credit: Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins, Bravo
Fans are slamming Nick Viall‘s wife, Natalie Joy, over her seemingly callous questions to Austen Kroll about his sister’s tragic passing, as Craig Conover‘s ex-girlfriend, Paige DeSorbo, reacts.
In a past season of Southern Charm, Austen bravely opened up about his sister, Kyle, who tragically fell off a cliff amid a hike when she and Austen were children.
On a recent episode of The Viall Files, Austen was discussing Southern Charm when Natalie made a strange segue.
“Quickly jumping out of Southern Charm — I’m sure we’re gonna jump right back into it — but going into your childhood, I didn’t know this about your sister passing at nine,” said Natalie.
“Okay, we are switching gears,” said Austen, seemingly taken aback as his leg started shaking.
“Sorry. And you obviously don’t have to answer if you don’t [want]. My question is, how old were you when that happened?” Natalie continued.
“Seven,” Austen answered.
“You were seven?” said Katie.
“Yeah,” said Austen.
“How did your family — because you’re obviously so close to your family today, your parents and Katie — how did your family keep you all together during that time?” asked Natalie.
Austen said the birth of his younger sister Katie helped during that time, as she was the “biggest blessing.”
“The year-and-a-half period between my older sister passing and my younger sister being born was truly like the dark ages for our family,” he said. “But I was seven, eight, didn’t know what my family — my parents — were going through. Yeah. Which, you know, turns out was a very torturous period for them.”
Later on, Natalie continued to ask more questions about the passing.
“Were you there when she fell?” said Natalie.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“You were?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Where — what was this cliff?” she then asked. But Austen then indicated that he didn’t want to talk about the town where it happened.
In the comments of @stephwithdadeets‘ post about the interview, fans shared their thoughts.
“Oh this is icky. I hope they issue him a sincere apology and improve how they enter tough topics like loss in the future,” said one user.
“Even his foot movement shows he is so uncomfortable. And she doesn’t give one single sh**,” said another.
“So tacky grilling someone on something so traumatic!” wrote a different fan.
Meanwhile, Paige DeSorbo ‘liked’ a post from @thepinkpopbox, as the account supported Austen over the interview, per @queensofbravo on Instagram.
