The Bachelor alum Nick Viall and his girlfriend Natalie Joy have addressed Katie Thurston's recent revelation that she blocked Nick's phone number -- and the couple is pretty angry.
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Nick, 41, and Natalie, 24, discussed how Katie recently said she blocked Nick on her phone for "talking sh-t" about her during Monday's episode of his "The Viall Files" podcast.
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Natalie, a surgical technician who went Instagram official with Nick in January 2021, suggested Katie is "mean to other people for no reason" and "talks sh-t about the people on [her] season."
Natalie, citing The Bachelorette alum Michael Allio as an example, said she doesn't understand why Katie constantly brings up bachelors from her season and throws them under the bus when those men have moved on.
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"While hosting this [podcast], I hear so much about everyone," Nick said in response to Natalie's frustration.
"And Nick doesn't say any of the tea that he knows about anyone," Natalie insisted.
Nick reiterated how "there is so much" he knows, explaining, "which is part of the reason why I have this rule: If people want to put stuff out there for us to respond to, fine. But I don't want to be airing people's laundry that I hear or how they treated other people."
"I have heard some horror stories about my peers," the Season 21 The Bachelor star noted, "but I don't want to put it all out there. And to Natalie's point, it is almost as if [Katie] feels like she has this ownership over these guys from her season."
Nick said he's particularly bothered by how "mean" and "cruel" the Season 17 The Bachelorette star had been to Thomas Jacobs -- who is now engaged to The Bachelorette alum Becca Kufrin -- "over nothing."
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"I gave her an out [on my podcast]... And instead of recognizing that maybe she was a little hard on Thomas, she doubles down and warns the women of the world, specifically the women going on Paradise, to watch out for Thomas, suggesting he was some bad guy," Nick explained. "I mean, come on!"
Natalie admitted she also has "such an issue" with Katie's comments about having blocked Nick.
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"It really got me when I get tagged in a cute little TikTok reel on Instagram of Ms. Katie Thurston speaking about Nick. I watch it and I'm just very, very confused... Someone says, 'Why does Nick Viall hate you?' And she says, 'Nick Viall is blocked from my phone.' Like she has some sort of reason to block Nick," the model shared.
"When I know for a fact that Nick has only ever tried to help her and give her advice, which she's never taken. And so I am just confused why she felt the need to air that she has Nick blocked."
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Natalie reasoned, "Is it because she's trying to protect herself from texting Nick things she shouldn't be saying? I think she is platforming a lie, and I think we need to show the truth."
Natalie therefore asked Nick to read his last text-message exchange with Katie before she apparently blocked him.
Nick said the whole conversation started last year when he tweeted about an episode that was about to air during Katie's The Bachelorette season.
"She texted me, 'Best TV? Boo.' Then I gave my quick thoughts on the episode," Nick recalled.
Natalie proceeded to read the following texts: "Katie says, 'Ultimately my opinion on [Greg Grippo] doesn't matter. I knew before he left he wasn't The One. It was hard watching it back and always giving him validation, only for him to leave the way he did. But I knew even then that there was zero chance him and I would have worked in the real world.'"
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Nick added, "Then I wrote, 'It is good that you have clarity. As long as you are happy, that's what matters.' And she hearted that message."
"So all I'm saying is that from this text, she knew it wasn't going to be Greg, and then she went to [After the Final Rose] and pointed fingers at Greg and called him an actor and said this was the biggest performance of his life, when she was the one obviously acting the entire time."
Natalie vented, "It's clown behavior. Sorry, do not come for my man!"
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Nick said he had known that information about Katie the whole time she was posting on her social media accounts about Greg gaslighting her.
"And to Natalie's point, accusing Greg on national television at AFR as the lead with all the momentum and comes out and just flames him, this whole time, she allegedly knew that she wasn't going to pick him," Nick said.
"If you go back and watch that episode when Katie and Greg broke up, and she already knows she's not going to pick him, doesn't that change your entire perspective of that confrontation between them? Because if my memory serves me, Greg was doubting Katie's sincerity about their relationship."
Katie ignited this drama when she joked about how she's forgotten about Nick's "existence" during a TikTok Live Q&A session on Sunday, July 10, according to Us Weekly.
"Does Nick Viall not like you? Nick Viall is blocked from my phone. There's some tea for you," Katie told fans.
"I don't know, Nick is just -- I don't know what to say about him, to be honest."
Katie continued, "I get DMs sometimes that are like, 'Oh, my God, Nick won't stop talking sh-t about you.' I messaged him one time and I was like, 'Hey, just so you know, people are finding the things you're saying [about me] kind of odd.'"
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"And in short, he basically [turned it around on me]. He was like, 'How great that you have fans that care about you! Don't take it personally!' Whatever," Katie said. "You do you, Nick. I'll see you at the top."
Greg appeared to be Katie's frontrunner and the guy she was truly in love with on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season, which filmed in Spring 2021 and aired that summer, but he quit the show after expressing his love to her because he was unconvinced she felt the same way.
Greg accused Katie at the time of only caring about her show and giving out roses rather than the authenticity of their relationship. He wanted her to speak what was on her heart, and Katie had given him very little to work with.
Katie therefore picked wildlife manager Blake Moynes as her winner and the couple got engaged, but the pair split only a couple of months after the finale aired in October 2021.
Katie then announced her romance with one of her Week 2 eliminees, John Hersey, in November.
Katie faced backlash for having moved on from her former fiance too quickly with a "rebound," and Blake said on the "Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation" podcast in November that he felt "flabbergasted," shocked and "speechless" upon finding out about Katie's romance with John.
Blake also said he believed Katie had been emotionally cheating on him with John -- which Katie and John have both firmly denied in the press.
Katie and John eventually moved in together in San Diego, but they announced their split in June 2022.
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