With little transition, the podcast hosts went from asking Kroll about Southern Charm to his younger sister’s tragic death when he was just 7 — wondering, “Were you there when she fell? What was this cliff?”
Fans and other Bravo stars are rallying behind Austen Kroll following what they deemed an “insensitive” line of questioning by Nick Viall and wife Natalie Joy during an appearance on The Viall Files podcast.
The Southern Charm star was a guest on the podcast this week, with one segment of the hour-plus interview going viral for all the wrong reasons.
About 10 minutes into the conversation, after talking about Kroll’s time on the Bravo reality show, Joy abruptly changed topics. “Quickly jumping out of Southern Charm … but going into your childhood, I didn’t know this about your sister passing at 9,” she said, referring to Kroll’s older sister Kyle’s death in 1994 after falling off a cliff while on a family hike.
“Okay, we are switching gears,” said Kroll, as Joy continued her line of questioning.
“Sorry and you obviously don’t have to answer … my question is … how did your family, because you’re obviously so close to your family, your parents and Katie. How did you family keep y’all together during that time?” she continued, as fans noted Kroll’s leg began to shake.
He explained it was the birth of his younger sister Katie that was “the biggest blessing that the Kroll family could have gotten” after the “dark ages” that followed Kyle’s death. “That quite literally was like our whole family rebirth … life could begin again,” he shared openly.
After Viall noted he even has a hard time watching TV shows where bad stuff happens to children as a new dad himself — adding he has “so much admiration” for how Kroll’s family navigated the tragedy — Joy asked what many thought was a completely wild and insensitive question.
“Were you there when she fell?” she asked, as he confirmed he was. She then asked, “What was this cliff?”
Deciding not to even name the town it happened in, Kroll sidestepped the question, saying the area “got wiped off the map buy a hurricane and there’s no love lost with my family on that one.”
The podcasters ended this line of questioning with Viall wondering about the longterm repercussions from his sister’s death and if he’s felt it “creep up and affect you throughout your life.” Kroll noted his therapist sure thought so, citing it as a possible reason behind his commitment phobia.
One of Kroll’s Southern Charm costars, Rodrigo Reyes, was among the many who slammed Viall and Joy — specifically Joy — for broaching the subject. In the comments of a post by influencer Besties by Caitlin recapping the episode and criticizing the line of questioning, he wrote, “She’s a POS.”
Kristen Doute also liked the same Instagram post, in which an influencer wrote, “When Austen Kroll was on The Viall Files, I had to question if empathy and simple research were in the room.”
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
On another Instagram post slamming the interview, The Valley’s Janet Caperna also wrote, “This was so f–ked…even for them.”
The comments on The Viall Files YouTube page for the interview was also flooded with negative posts.
“‘What is this cliff?’ What kind of question is that,” wrote one viewer, while another added, “Nick should be absolutely embarrassed by Natalie… wth.”
“‘What is this cliff’?! The way I gasped… Totally inappropriate,” read another comment, before someone else wrote, “Natalie, that was the most unprofessional and rude segway into a question about his sister I’ve ever seen. Extremely insensitive. This is the problem with any influencer having a podcast, maybe get some training on how to do your job professionally and with class.”
“Kinda wild how you just randomly dive into his sister, that is a painful topic, with no empathetic transition into it, obviously he doesn’t have a problem talking to you guys about it, but you can tell he was shocked at how you brought it up,” commented another viewer, while others brought up that Kroll has talked about his sister on the show multiple times, something they felt the hosts should have known more about before broaching the subject.
Neither Kroll or Viall and Joy have said anything about the criticism.
