Natalie Joy ‘Clocked’ Passenger On Plane, And Says She Had A Very Good Reason

Natalie Joy is not here for rude passengers.

The model and wife of "Bachelor" alum Nick Viall is opening up about a tense but surprisingly humorous encounter with a fellow airline passenger who criticized the couple’s 15-month-old daughter, River Rose, during a recent flight.

On the latest episode of "The Viall Files" podcast, Natalie Joy recounted the moment she confronted a woman seated in front of them in business class after catching her texting complaints about their toddler.

“We’ve not left the gate, and I clocked the woman in front of me,” Joy began. “Y’all know I love an eavesdrop phone read on an airplane.”

Joy explained that although she initially thought the woman would be friendly, “we made eye contact as we were boarding," things quickly took a turn once the woman pulled out her phone.

According to Joy, River wasn’t crying but was in a particularly “talkative” mood. Still, that didn’t stop the woman from taking issue with their child’s presence in her personal texts.

“She starts typing to her friends, ‘There’s some young couple behind me in business class with their around-year-old kid screaming up a storm. The kind of people who think it’s cute. They need to learn how to quiet their kid down,’” Joy claimed.

That’s when Joy couldn’t help but notice a little something extra in the text, a spelling mistake. The woman had written “there” instead of “their.”

“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,’” Joy recalled, adding that the woman reacted with a slight huff and turned away without saying much else.

But the moment didn’t end there.

“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 shared, visibly amused.

In fact, Joy admitted she was ultimately “impressed” by the woman’s ability to take the moment in stride.

“She owned it. I have to give her credit for that,” she said.

Meanwhile, Viall said he had no idea any of it was happening at the time.

“I was completely oblivious,” the new dad admitted on the podcast.

The couple, who tied the knot in April 2024, welcomed River Rose just two months prior, in February. Since becoming parents, both Viall and Joy have been candid about their journey, including the heartbreak they've experienced.

On the January 29 episode of "The Viall Files" podcast, the model shared that she was in the middle of a miscarriage.

"I've been trying to be a good mom to River and come and do my job, whether it's on the podcast or on social media for the past week," Joy began, holding back tears. "And currently, as I sit here today, I'm actively miscarrying our second child, and it has been the biggest heartbreak, I think, of my life."

Fighting through emotion, Joy reflected on how the loss has left her feeling hollow.

"I've never experienced something where I feel so empty inside," she said before recalling her sister’s experience with multiple miscarriages, twelve in total, and how it gave her perspective on the emotional toll that so many women face. "You feel sad and you wanna be there for these people," she said, "but you don't really know the loss that they feel until you go through it yourself."

Joy, who has been candid in the past about both her motherhood experience and personal growth, shared that her heartbreak is amplified by the challenge of balancing grief with the joyful demands of parenting.

"I want River to be able to watch this back and see her parents' love for her sibling that could have been here," she said. “I just feel dead inside. And it sucks because I have to be so alive for River. You know? I have to be silly and goofy and funny and play with her.”

Her voice breaking, Joy turned to Viall and admitted she felt torn between grieving and being present. “And then I have this overwhelming guilt that when I'm with you, I can't also do that,” she said. “I'm sad that the only version of me you get right now is this broken person, and I'm sorry for that.”