Kaitlyn Bristowe and Nick Viall’s Messy Relationship Timeline: From Nearly Engaged to Feuding Exes

Credit: PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Pandora Jewelry

Kaitlyn Bristowe and Nick Viall’s Messy Relationship Timeline: From Nearly Engaged to Feuding Exes

Not all Bachelor Nation breakups are created equal. Years after Kaitlyn Bristowe and Nick Viall’s controversial relationship played out on season 11 of The Bachelorette, the exes struggled to stay on good terms. Following Nick’s stint on season 10 of The Bachelorette, in which he was the runner-up for Andi Dorfman’s heart, he started talking to Kaitlyn, who attempted to find love with Chris Soules on season 19 of The Bachelor. The Natural Habits creator dished on their pre-show relationship on a January 2019 episode of his “Viall Files” podcast, admitting they talked “every day, all day,” on the phone and via FaceTime. After striking up a relationship, however, Kaitlyn was offered the chance to be the Bachelorette for season 11. Still interested in pursuing a future with the former dance teacher, Nick crashed a group date on her season and joined the cast. Despite the romantic gesture — and pre-fantasy suite hookup — Kaitlyn found herself falling for fellow contestant Shawn Booth and rejected Nick mid-proposal during the finale. “It was more personal because of the relationship before and all the things that happened leading up to it,” Nick admitted on his podcast in January 2019. “Everyone knows at this point that Kaitlyn and I had chatted before. I haven’t shied away from that.” [jwplayer OnvquITt-l3ahXupL] “At that point, she was just kind of a friend and we were kind of going down that path of flirting and talking ridiculous things and then that kind of snowballed when she went on [Jimmy] Kimmel,” he continued. “I remember her texting me and saying, ‘Hey, make sure you watch.’ She was like, ‘I’ll throw you signals. I’m going to keep touching my lip with my fingers.’ She did that!” Nick and Kaitlyn’s post-show relationship has faced several ups and downs following their split, including the “Off the Vine” podcast host accusing her ex of not joining the franchise for the right reasons. Scroll through for a complete timeline of Nick and Kaitlyn’s relationship: Listen on Spotify to Here For the Right Reasons to get inside scoop about the Bachelor franchise and exclusive interviews from contestants.

Credit: Getty Images (2)

2015

Kaitlyn and Nick got to know each other over the phone before she was offered the role of The Bachelorette for season 11. 

Credit: Courtesy of ABC

2015

During the fourth episode of Kaitlyn’s season of The Bachelorette, Nick made an appearance during a group date in New York City. After asking the former dance instructor for a chance at love, Kaitlyn invited Nick to join the show. Two weeks later, the twosome had sex, much to Shawn’s dismay.

"I think you're an a–hole," Shawn said to Nick on the show. "I don't think you're here just for Kaitlyn."

Credit: Rick Rowell/ABC

2015

During the season finale, which aired in July 2015, Kaitlyn stopped Nick right before he was about to propose to her because she wanted to be with Shawn. Nick confronted his ex about the situation during the live After the Final Rose special.

"We said 'I love you' to each other," he said at the time. "That was towards the end, and obviously I took that to heart. I'm wondering what you were thinking."

Kaitlyn fired back with an epic eye roll: "That's what happens in this world. You get into situations. I think at the end of the day, no love that I had was the one that I had for Shawn. I think that is the only explanation."

Credit: GP Images/WireImage; David Becker/Getty Images

2016

Despite ending on bad terms, Kaitlyn told Us exclusively that she was “happy” for Nick after he was named The Bachelor for season 21.

"Everyone deserves to find someone,” she told Us in August 2016. “I hope it works out." 

Credit: Courtesy of ABC

2017

The exes continued their friendly streak by reuniting on Jimmy Kimmel Live! ahead of the premiere of his season of The Bachelor in January 2017. Andi, who also dumped Nick during her season finale of The Bachelorette, was also in attendance. 

"We talk every once in a while," Nick said of his former flames at the time. "We've run into each other. We're friends. Like, we're friendly." 

Credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images

2017

After ABC confirmed Nick was set to appear on Dancing With the Stars, Kaitlyn claimed Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss banned her from appearing on the dancing competition.

“I believe men and women should be afforded the same opportunities,” she said at the time. “That has not been the case with the Bachelorettes and the Bachelors. I had an offer to do Dancing With the Stars and was told by Mike I could not. I was told by Mike that it is bad for his brand, and that he is sick of people wanting fame from his show.” 

Credit: ABC/Rick Rowell

2018

Shawn and Kaitlyn ended their engagement in November 2018 after three years together. When asked if he would ever reunite with Kaitlyn, Nick replied, “I don’t think so.” 

“They dated for three and a half years, that’s pretty good,” Nick told Heather McDonald’s “Juicy Scoop” podcast. “I mean, most people aren’t married for three and a half years.”

He added: “Everyone knew except for me that Kaitlyn was gonna pick Shawn.” 

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

2019

Shortly after his split from Kaitlyn, Shawn admitted that his former fiancée sleeping with Nick during the season was “always in the back of [his] mind.”

“I had a tough time on that show. It was always a battle of my heart vs. my brain. I think the whole Nick situation was a big part of our relationship,” Shawn said on the “Almost Famous” podcast.

Credit: Rachel Luna/Getty Images; Walter McBride/Getty Images

2019

After Shawn’s bombshell confession, Nick revealed exclusively to Us that he hasn’t had “much interaction” with Kaitlyn “in a few years.” He did, however, support her relationship with Jason Tartick.

“I’ve met Jason once and I really enjoyed his company,” Nick told Us. “Why not? He seems like a good guy. But I wouldn’t really be in a position to say whether they’re a good match or not, but they seem like they’re enjoying each other’s company.”

Credit: Getty Images (3)

2019

Kaitlyn threw shade at Nick during a live podcast taping of her “Off the Vine” podcast with Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph in April 2019.

“Now it’s usually the format of the show to get engaged, but let me tell you, I was so annoyed on my season,” Kaitlyn said before admitting she wanted to send Nick and Ben Higgins home before the finale. “I wanted to do what you did and be like, ’Screw it, I know who I’m picking.’” 

Credit: PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Pandora Jewelry

2019

The native Canadian threw more shade at Nick in April 2019 while playing a Bachelorette word association game. When asked who came to mind when they heard the words, “The Right Reasons,” Kaitlyn quipped, “Not Nick Viall.” 

Nick clapped back in the comments section of the post: “@Kaitlynbristowe dms me two weeks into filming.. asks me to show up. Picks someone else. Makes jokes post show at my expense in national interviews to cover own ass. 3 years later…..same ole.”

Credit: Getty Images (2)

2019

After years of not speaking to each other, Kaitlyn revealed that they buried the hatchet in May 2019. “We were doing little, small jabs at each other,” Kaitlyn said on an episode of LadyGang at the time. “And then I was like, ‘We just need to talk it out.’ And then he was like, ‘What did I do you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, nothing — that’s fair.’”

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

2019

Nick and Kaitlyn reconnected in November 2019 when they made appearances on each other’s podcasts. During their candid chat on “Viall Files,” she admitted that Shawn always made her feel shame about hooking up with Nick during their season.

“At the end of the day, you have a choice and I chose [Shawn] and he chose me and then he chose to focus on you. It really was hard for him. It was really, really a lingering thing in the relationship,” she said in November 2019. “I think I was made to feel shame, but deep down I wasn’t ashamed. But that’s why I acted the way I did or that’s why we didn’t talk or that’s why I made little jabs here and there because I knew he had been so hurt by it and I hated that … I truly, deeply loved him and I wanted to protect him, so it was so hard for me.”

Credit: ABC; Shutterstock (inset)

2020

The night before ABC re-aired a condensed version of Kaitlyn’s season in June 2020, Nick posted a clip of their awkward proposal.

“It was like waving at someone who’s waving at the person behind … but a million times worse. TBH I look back on this time of my life and have nothing but positive memories,” he wrote via Instagram. “I just didn’t think ABC would make us relive the entire failed proposal tomorrow night … It really was a season for the ages. You never know how you view things as time passes. Glad to be able to call KB a good friend!”

Shawn proved to be ready to put all of the drama behind him too. “Well said, ‘other guy’ 😏,” he commented on Nick’s post.

Credit: ABC/Christopher Willard

2021

When her cohost, Tayshia Adams, was forced to miss Michelle Young's December 2021 After the Final Rose special due to COVID-19 exposure, Kaitlyn received a supportive message from her former flame. "Hosting any live show is really hard, I remember Chris [Harrison] telling me how much pride he had pulling each AFR off," Nick tweeted at the time. "@kaitlynbristowe is crushing it tonight #TheBacheloretteFinale."

The Spade and Sparrows founder replied, "That is really kind. Thank you, Nick."

Credit: ABC (2)

July 2022

The Don’t Text Your Ex Happy Birthday author’s feud with Blake Horstmann was reignited after “Viall Files” released Nick’s text messages with Katie Thurston as a way to try to show that his last communication with the season 17 lead was cordial amid Katie revealing that she had blocked Nick's number. (Nick and Blake had previously feuded over the latter sharing Caelynn Miller-Keyes’ text messages during BiP drama in 2019.) Kaitlyn subsequently took Blake’s side.

"[Nick] has contradicted himself so many times in life where I'm like, ‘Oh gosh stop,’” she said on her “Off the Vine” podcast. “I was like, ‘No way he's s—t on Blake for this.’ … The fact that he was just reading out these texts, I'm like, ‘What is he doing?’”

Credit: Shutterstock; ABC

August 2022

Kaitlyn and Nick were among the members of Bachelor Nation at Wells Adams and Sarah Hyland’s wedding.

“Wells and Sarah’s wedding at my table — Chris Soules, Nick Viall, Chris Harrison, Ben Higgins,” Kaitlyn said on her podcast after the ceremony.

Credit: ABC; Shutterstock

January 2023

Kaitlyn reflected on sleeping with Nick during her season during an interview with the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast.

“They really sexualized Nick to me. … One producer actually said to me, after I would kiss him, she'd come in and, like, wipe my lips and, like, lick her lips and be like, ‘Oh, I just want to know what that tastes like — to, like, make out with Nick,’” Kaitlyn, who made waves at the time when she slept with Nick before the fantasy suites, claimed. “They really, like, put them on a pedestal to me. … That was part of their tactic. … I was brainwashed.”

Credit: Shutterstock; ABC

February 2023

“Was she suggesting because someone asked her, I guess, what my breath smells like or how I tasted, that from that moment forward, she was incapable of decision making?” Nick asked, noting that he thinks he knows the producer in question and doesn’t think what she described as “brainwashing.”

Nick implied that Kaitlyn — and other alums — are guilty of “cherry-picking” when it’s “beneficial to them to criticize certain things” about the show.

“When I tell you who felt really manipulated and brainwashed on Kaitlyn’s season — this guy. And it wasn’t just from producers,” he said. “While angry and brainwashed and manipulated in the moment, I have said thank you to people — including Kaitlyn — about how things played out,” he said. “Whether they were deserving of that thank you or not, or whether they had my best intentions in the moment or not, I'm still grateful for all of it. And so, I just try to look at it from that level and that lens from, like, 30,000 feet [away], rather than, ‘Today, I’m going to play the victim because it serves me well and tomorrow, I'm going to pretend when it's affecting someone else that it's a TV show.’”

Credit: ABC/Nino Muñoz; imageSPACE/Shutterstock; Image Press/Shutterstock

2023

During an interview with Zach Shallcross and Kaity Biggar, Kaitlyn pointed out that “Nick was so hard” on the season 27 lead.

“Do I even want to go into that?” Zach said on the “Off the Vine” podcast in March 2023. “Because he had reached out to me, like, the day before saying, ‘Hey man, I got your back, like, I'll support you.’ And then he drops his phone number. And I just, like, saw it and I'm like, ‘Oh, that's great.’ The next day, I just see in Yahoo News or whatever, ‘[Nick] Slams Zach Shallcross. … He's so this and that.' I was like, ‘Was that just a pity reach out?' Because it kind of hurt. I've never met him. And I was like, ‘It’s kind of an a—hole move.’ Maybe he didn't mean to — maybe something he said got taken out of context — I don't listen to his stuff. But from what I could see, it looked a little harsh.”

Kaitlyn agreed: “It was harsh. And I was like, ‘Oh, that's not very nice.’ Because once you're in, like, you guys are family now.”