Nick Viall And His Wife Natalie Joy Owe Austen Kroll An Apology

Nick Viall and his wife, Natalie Joy Viall, are facing backlash for their Viall Files interview with Southern Charm star Austen Kroll — and rightfully so.

Less than 10 minutes into last Thursday’s (Jan. 8) episode of The Viall Files podcast, Natalie abruptly asked Austen about the death of his older sister, Kyle Kroll, who tragically passed away at the age of nine after falling over a cliff on a family hiking trip. Austen was only seven years old when the incident occurred, and the tragedy has had a lasting impact on him and his family, as those who actually watch Southern Charm are aware of.

“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,” Natalie says in the episode, to which Austen uncomfortably answered, “OK. We are switching gears.”

Natalie continued to pry into the Kroll family lore, asking Austen how old he was when his sister died, and how his family was able to keep it together in the face of such a horrific tragedy. Austen, having been tossed his fair share of hardball questions over the years, handled the interrogation well, describing the “torturous” time as the “dark ages for my family,” and crediting the birth of his younger sister, Katie Kroll, for bringing them back together. But, for some reason, that was still not enough for Natalie.

“Were you there when she fell? What was this … cliff?” she asked, pressing for more specific details.

Austen, while nervously shaking his leg, replied, “To talk about the town, it just got wiped off the map by a hurricane. There was no love lost with my family on that one. I won’t even say the name of the town. But there was no love lost with it. But yeah, no.”

With the clip going viral, the Viall Files has been torn to shreds on the internet, and Austen’s Bravo family has come to his defense. Southern Charm star Rodrigo Reyes commented, “She’s a POS,” referring to Natalie’s cavalier questioning, while Southern Hospitality star TJ Dinch wrote, “They both should be canceled,” and The Valley star Janet Caperna added, “This was so fucked…even for them.” Even Cameron Eubanks, who famously left the show years ago, came to Austen’s defense, posting on Instagram that “I hope a sincere apology will be issued.”

I have to say, as a longtime fan of Southern Charm and someone who has had the pleasure of interviewing most of the cast (Austen, included), I can’t help but agree with his peers.

Anyone who has watched Southern Charm knows how sensitive a topic this is for the Kroll family. Austen first opened up about Kyle’s death in his debut season (Season 4) during an emotional conversation with former star Chelsea Meissner, whom he was dating at the time. Austen told Bravo’s The Daily Dish in 2018 that nobody had known about Kyle up until that moment—not even his close friends, Craig Conover and Shep Rose. “It wasn’t easy [to share about my sister],” he told the outlet.

If Nick and Natalie had done their homework—or, at the very least, a quick Google search—they would’ve been able to find that information. But, instead, they opted to try for that vulnerable, raw interview moment that, ultimately, backfired drastically on them. To not only bring up such a painful moment in Austen’s life—one that should only be spoken about if he initiates the conversation—in such an indelicate manner, but to go on about it for five minutes of the interview was cringey at best. But dare we say that Austen—though flawed in other ways—handled their crass prodding in the best way he could. We just feel sorry that he had to sit there with them for another hour after they finally moved on from the topic.

Nick and Natalie, do the right thing and apologize to Austen. Also, maybe start watching the shows you conduct interviews for before sitting down with their stars.