Former Bachelor Nick Viall and his wife, Natalie Joy, have found themselves at the center of travel controversies over the years.
In a November 2023 episode of “The Viall Files” podcast, Viall claimed that “Air Canada hates pregnant women.” (Joy was pregnant at the time with their first child, River Rose, who was born in February 2024.)
“Maybe they just hate people. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure they definitely hate pregnant women,” he continued, while Joy alleged that their experience with the airline was the “worst moment” of her pregnancy.
Joy noted that she and Viall arrived at the airport early to add their puppy to their flight back to Los Angeles after she appeared as a special guest on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast tour in Toronto. While the couple were allegedly ready for their takeoff, the woman working behind the counter that day noted that they would not be allowed on the flight because they did not check in 90 minutes before their departure.
Joy and Viall were referred to the airline’s website, which allegedly stated that passengers could “likely” miss their flight if they did not check in 90 minutes prior. The couple, who tied the knot in 2024, later learned that their original flight was delayed. They eventually made it home, waiting five hours at the airport.
“Every person who works for Air Canada actively does not want to help you,” Viall alleged. “They don’t. They get off on not helping you.”
Air Canada responded to the situation in a statement to Us Weekly at the time.
“In order to ensure baggage is loaded and passengers onboard in time for each flight, as well as to ensure there is time for them to clear security and, if necessary, customs, like all airlines we have cut-off times for travelers,” their statement read. “Our cut-off times are posted on our website and we communicate them in our mobile app once a customer has checked in and advise them what the times are. If a customer hasn’t checked in at minus-5 hours before their flight, they also receive a check-in reminder re-stating the cut-off.”
Scroll down to see Viall and Joy’s travel controversies through the years:
Before Viall and Joy detailed their travel experience with Air Canada on “The Viall Files” podcast, the former Bachelor criticized the airline via X in November 2023.
In response, Air Canada wrote, “Hello, We are sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with us. Please send us a DM with more details for us to look into it.”
Viall noted that it was “too late” for the airline to fix the situation. “You’re [sic] employee at counter 12-5 in the business class line didn’t care about my pregnant fiancé[e] needing to make flight they refused to help,” he wrote. “I’m just going to share our horrible experience to help others avoid your airline so they don’t have the same experience.”
The couple, their daughter and Joy’s mom traveled to Turks and Caicos for their honeymoon and hit a snag when they were going through customs after landing. Viall explained on a May 2024 episode of “The Viall Files” podcast that they were waiting for their passports to be stamped when an agent noted that Joy’s passport had a ripped page — and were allegedly told they could not enter the country.
Joy was “sobbing” over their travel hurdle while on their honeymoon as Viall tried to remain calm.
“I was like, ‘It’s going to be OK. We’re gonna get a lecture of some kind and clearly we’re gonna be fine,’” Viall added, noting they were told they were going back to the United States. “[The agent] looked at me and was like, ‘Are you still going to go to your hotel?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not leaving my wife.’”
He continued, “Natalie’s crying and I appear calm but I’m radiating with anxiety. I’m telling myself, ‘You’re two days on the f**king job. Time to be a husband. It’s your time to step up and stay calm. Everything’s going to be fine.’”
Viall noted that the situation “felt like a nightmare,” adding that they booked nonrefundable tickets and “decided to make an investment” in their honeymoon. The family was booked on “the next flight out,” but faced a six-hour aircraft delay and the flight was canceled due to a maintenance issue. Delta Airlines put the family up at a local hotel for one night.
“It could have been much worse [and] we had one night,” Viall said.
On a May 2025 episode of “The Viall Files” podcast, Joy shared that the couple had just boarded business class on a flight from Los Angeles when she saw a woman texting about their daughter. Joy noted that River was in a “talkative” mood but not crying.
“So the woman in front of me, who I thought, honestly, was going to be quite nice because we made eye contact as we were boarding,” Joy said. “So I read on her phone, the first thing I see is, ’18-month-old in business class.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, here we go.’”
Joy explained that the woman began texting to her “friends” that there’s a “young couple” behind her in business class with their “around [1]-year-old kid screaming up a storm.” The text allegedly claimed that Viall and Joy are the “kind of people who think it’s cute” and said “they need to learn how to quiet their kid down… the poor woman next to me is trying to work.”
Joy noted that the woman incorrectly spelled “their” in her text, so she mentioned the typo when confronting the passenger.
“As she’s finishing her text, I lean up and tap her on the shoulder, and I said, ‘It’s t-h-e-i-r. Their kid, not there,’” Joy said, to which Viall noted that he had “no idea this was going on” but claimed he heard the women discussing the spelling error. When the woman asked whether she was looking at her screen, Joy replied, “Are you texting about my kid?”
“She kind of, like, huffs and puffs and turns, and then she brings out her phone, same level, same brightness, same text size, and starts going, ‘She just confronted me about a spelling error. She’s reading my text from behind me. LOL. I respect it,’” Joy alleged.
One day after sharing the story on “The Viall Files” podcast, the pair reacted to the fan response — with Joy claiming that people were “more mad at me for reading the text than for the woman talking s*** on my kid.”
Viall explained, “Having a kid makes you more empathetic in every aspect of life. The way you see other parents on a flight, and you just want to help them. When I see a mom with a child coming on a plane, I’m just waiting for an opportunity to help her with her bag. I don’t want to be intrusive … but yeah, it’s difficult.”
