The Bachelor alum Nick Viall and his fiancee Natalie Joy have revealed that they're expecting their first child together.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Our biggest dream came true," the pair captioned two black-and-white maternity photos as well as a sonogram image via Instagram on Tuesday, August 8.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Natalie showed off her baby bump in the pictures while wearing a flowy white dress with puffy sleeves, and Nick -- sporting a dark suit and no tie -- posed behind her with his hand on her waist.
Bachelor in Paradise alum Victoria Fuller commented on the joint posting, "I love you guys -- all 3 of you... Feel like I've been hiding this for centuries."
ADVERTISEMENT
And Natalie responded, "Omg for so long."
Other Bachelor Nation members also congratulated the couple on their big news.
"The best secret I ever kept," Genevieve Parisi wrote.
And Nick's ex-fiancee and The Bachelor 21 winner, Vanessa Grimaldi, commented, "Aww!!! Congratulations!!!!!"
Thomas Jacobs gushed, "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
ADVERTISEMENT
And Nick's former Dancing with the Stars partner, Peta Murgatroyd, commented, "OMGGGGGGG!!!!! This is incredible news! So happy for you guys."
Serena Pitt, Dean Unglert, and Amanda Stanton all sent their love, among others.
Nick and Natalie got engaged in Venice, CA, in January after three years of dating.
In July, Nick revealed he had bought the lake house his grandfather had built in 1965 for his mother so that it will stay in the family.
"[This is now] the place we will make new memories with our kids [one day]. Finally home," The Bachelorette alum shared with his social-media followers.
ADVERTISEMENT
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Given Natalie's bump is highly noticeable and it's been a well-kept secret for quite some time, Nick and Natalie were already aware of the pregnancy at the time of his social-media posting.
Natalie also wrote on Nick's Instagram post, "What a JOURNEY this has been!! We will create the most beautiful memories here and our children will get to grow up enjoying the same slice of heaven their dad grew up enjoying."
Nick and Natalie recently celebrated three years of dating, and Nick told E! News in February that they're "definitely anxious to get married."
"We definitely didn't get engaged to have a long engagement, so it's been great. It's exciting," he shared at the time, adding, "We just started talking about [the wedding]."
ADVERTISEMENT
Nick shared how he and Natalie probably won't be having a destination wedding.
"I don't know if our goal is to have the biggest wedding of all time. I think for us, something we've talked about is it's important to involve people who know our relationship and know us. So I think that would be kind of the driving force," Nick said, hinting the pair may get married close to home in California.
And Natalie chimed in, "Also convenience. We want it to be super easy. I have a lot of older, sick family members that I want to come and I don't want anyone having to fly to Mexico. I want it to be easy for everyone."
Nick and Natalie reportedly first became romantically involved in 2019 but attempted to keep their relationship private for more than a year and didn't go public until after widespread reports that they were dating surfaced in January 2021.
Nick and Natalie had been living together prior to Nick proposing marriage, and so their engagement didn't come as a big surprise to fans. The couple had openly talked about the possibility of getting married and having children together for some time.
"We're having those conversations that everyone is scared to have, but they're definitely needed," Natalie said during a joint interview with Nick on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in June 2022.
"We talk about finances, children, where we want to live, and things like that. We are definitely opening up and talking about those things more. We're not not trying, we're not trying either. We're just living life."
Nick also noted on the podcast how Natalie was "playful" when they discussed getting engaged and she had given him some helpful tips and hints.
"She's giving me the information I need to be successful," Nick said at the time.
"I love that for me. She was like 'Is this too much?' And it wasn't. She walked the line carefully and told me exactly what you want and where you're at."
Nick pointed out how Natalie's candidness about what ring she wanted and how she envisioned the marriage proposal going took some pressure off him.
ADVERTISEMENT
"She wants to tell me things, but we both have a level of wanting it to be romantic and a surprise, rather than knowing today is the day," Nick said last year.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Nick reportedly even got emotional when talking about his strong feelings for Natalie and confessed that, for the first time in his life, he would "not be okay" if Natalie left him.
According to the former The Bachelor star, he had typically anticipated a breakup in each of his prior relationships but Natalie had made him feel "so safe."
During the interview, Nick also revealed he and Natalie initially met through friends but she was the one to make the first move.
"She slid into my DMs. It was very romantic," Nick recalled with a laugh, adding that he first met her when he was with some of his friends in New York.
Nick starred on Season 21 of The Bachelor in 2017 after several prior attempts to find love on The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise didn't work out for him.
After competing for Andi Dorfman's heart on The Bachelorette's tenth season in 2014 and finishing as the runner-up behind winner Josh Murray, Nick also appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe's The Bachelorette season the following year.
Kaitlyn ended up giving her final rose and getting engaged to personal trainer Shawn Booth, whom she split from in November 2018 after three years of being together. (Shawn is currently expecting his first child, and Kaitlyn just ended her second engagement to The Bachelorette 14 alum Jason Tartick in early August).
Nick continued his search for love on reality television following his split from Kaitlyn through a stint on Bachelor in Paradise, but when a romance with Jennifer Saviano didn't work out, ABC selected him to star on The Bachelor's 2017 season.
Nick got engaged to Vanessa, who worked as a special education teacher at the time, but their romance kicked off with more challenges than the average The Bachelor couple to come out of the show given Vanessa had been living in Canada and Nick preferred to stay in the United States.
Shortly after getting engaged, Nick also competed on Dancing with the Stars, which soaked up a lot of his free time and energy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nick and Vanessa split in August 2017 and Nick seemingly never entered another serious relationship until Natalie in 2019.
As for Vanessa, she announced her engagement to Canadian businessman Josh Wolfe in August 2020, and the couple got married on August 2021 in their hometown of Montreal, Canada.
Vanessa and Josh welcomed their first child in October 2022.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!