Nick Viall and wife Natalie slammed for insensitive questions about Austen Kroll’s deceased sister

Nick Viall and his wife Natalie Joy Viall were both slammed online for the ‘tone deaf,’ insensitive way they asked Austen Kroll about his deceased sister during their podcast The Viall Files on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old Southern Charm star was only seven when he witnessed his nine-year-old sister Kyle tragically plummet 150ft-200ft off a hiking trail to her death during a family outing.

Natalie started abruptly interrogating Kroll about his departed sibling less than 10 minutes into the show, eventually asking him ‘Were you there when she fell?’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Kroll replied while nervously bouncing his knee.

‘You were? Where? What was this cliff? Like,’ Natalie probed.

‘To talk about, you know, the town – it just got wiped off the map by a hurricane,’ Kroll responded.

‘And there was no love lost with my family on that one. So I won’t even say the name of the town.’

The TropHop Beers founder went on to explain how his family coped with the unimaginable loss – the birth of his younger sister Katie.

‘If my older sister Kyle were here still, then my younger sister Katie wouldn’t be here. It was literally a cause and effect,’ Kroll said.

‘The year and a half period between my older sister passing and my younger sister being born was truly like the dark ages for our family.

‘But I was seven/eight I didn’t know what my parents were going through, which turns out was a very torturous period for them. And then my younger sister was born and that quite literally was like our whole family rebirth.’

For some reason, Viall decided that was the perfect time to tell his guest how ‘grateful and lucky’ he was to have ‘never experienced anything that tragic.’

‘As a new dad – I mean now he knows – like, I have a hard time watching, like, TV shows and content where, like, something bad happens to kids,’ the 45-year-old podcaster added.

On February 2, the married couple of 21 months – who’ve suffered three miscarriages – will celebrate the second birthday of their ‘miracle’ daughter River.

On June 3, Kroll and his family celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Kyle Kroll Memorial Award by returning to her alma mater Stone Ridge Sacred Heart in Bethesda, MD to honor a fourth grader following in her footsteps.

On Instagram, the reaction was intense with users like @popcu1turefiend commenting: ‘Can someone give Natalie a class on how to interview and not bring up horrific childhood trauma within 10 minutes?! Like WTF?’

‘Natalie’s comments/questions about his sister were so weird,’ @bethhilburger scoffed.

@alisonvirginia blasted: ‘”What was this cliff?” Has got to be one of the dumbest, out of touch questions I have ever heard. These two continue to prove they don’t deserve the platform they have.’

‘Dear god Natalie. Read the room,’ @brieehub90 commented.

‘Yikes!’ @persianfirecracker wrote. ‘For someone who has had multiple miscarriages; how are you this tone deaf?’

@christine.wazonek agreed: ‘And for Nick to like laugh and say “luckily nothing tragic like that has happened to me.”‘

‘How many clips are you guys going to share instead of publicly apologizing?’ @vbrosseau1984 commented. ‘And Natalie hiding like she always does.’

Rather than issue any public apologies, the 27-year-old surgical technologist Instastoried a snap of her husband and child in bed captioned: ‘The stomach bug has wiped us out. See [you] in 2027.’

Viall first found fame with his four stints in the Bachelor Nation franchise – Bachelor in Paradise, After Paradise, The Bachelorette and The Bachelor.