Nick Viall Says He 'Carded' 18-Years-Younger Fiancé Natalie Joy Before Agreeing to Date Her

Nick Viall turned down fiancée Natalie Joy "so many times" before they eventually got together — and he can admit now that her age had a little something to do with it.

"We started messaging, and I carded her," The Bachelor alum, 42, shared about the beginning of their relationship with Joy, 24, on Wednesday's The Squeeze podcast hosted by Taylor Lautner and his wife Tay Lautner.

"He was like, 'I want to see your ID,'" Joy recalled.

"The age for me was something I was self conscious about," he added, revealing to the Lautners that he told Joy early on that they "would never date."

But despite their age gap, the couple were able to find common ground — which unfortunately earned Joy some pushback on social media.

"It's definitely weird to have so many people give you their opinions," admitted the surgical technologist. "DMs of mean comments about [how] I'm a 'child bride' … just terrible, terrible things people would call me."

She continued, "I was like, I am going to spend the rest of my life with this man, and I knew it and he didn't, so I was like, I'm gonna hang on because he'll come around."

It's not the first time the two have shared their thoughts about the age difference.

In a joint appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast last June, they addressed the gap, with Viall admitting that he was initially worried about the issue.

"At first, it was something I think I was having a lot of anxiety about," he said. "You know, like, 'Are we going to be compatible?' And I think early on that was part of the things I would worry about. But just the more I got to know her, the more I was just going to her for advice or just checking in with her, I just felt like we just met each other on the same wavelength and I always felt like she was my equal."

Joy added, "We realized we were on the same stages of life and we were ready for the same things … I'm in a place where I want to get married and have children and he's also in that same place. We both have big careers and aspirations and jobs and stuff that we both love."

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Viall and Joy were first linked in 2020, with a source telling PEOPLE at the time that "she's great for him."

The former reality star later went public on his Viall Files podcast in February 2021, saying, "It's fun. It's great. I'm super happy."

The couple announced that they were engaged in a joint Instagram post this past January.

"For the rest of my life, it's you," Viall wrote alongside photos from the couple's engagement, including a shot of Viall kissing his fiancée's hand as it dazzled with her custom engagement ring from Brilliant Earth.