These exes are letting bygones be bygones.
Nick Viall opened up about a recent conversation he had with his ex Kaitlyn Bristowe that was related to a "tongue-in-cheek" comment she made a few weeks ago. Some background: before jumping into Alabama Hannah Brown's current season of The Bachelorette, Chris Harrison rallied past Bachelorette stars to Bachelor Mansion for a huge reunion special. These women included JoJo Fletcher, Rachel Lindsay, Becca Kufrin, Jillian Harris, Emily Maynard, Andi Dorfman and others, including Kaitlyn.
The Bachelorette's Instagram page got everyone pumped for the reunion special with a series of Instagram videos, one of which was a word association game. The oft-repeated Bachelor Nation phrase "the right reasons" was among those, and Kaitlyn quipped, "Not Nick Viall."
Well, the Natural Habits Founder was less than pleased about the response. Nick commented on the video but later deleted it. According to Us Weekly, he wrote, "@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."
Nick and Kaitlyn had a phone conversation recently about what she said, and he gave a summary on his podcast The Viall Files, which E! News exclusively obtained, of their chat and the "closure" he felt.
From the top, the 38-year-old admitted he was "really mad at Kaitlyn" after she said that. However, the Nashville local called Nick and they had "a nice conversation." It also happened to be the first time they spoke on the phone in over three years.
Nick explained that being the butt of Kaitlyn's jokes is not his favorite thing in the world.
"When it comes to Kaitlyn, I am hyper-sensitive. It's a trigger," he told Sugar Lyn Beard.
Nick discussed how his time on Kaitlyn's season was "an overall positive experience" and that his coming onto her season put him in a vulnerable and different position than other times.
"Of all the times I've been on the show, every other time was this opportunity I had to be open to the possibility of meeting someone," he shared. "But when I went on for Kaitlyn's season, it was for that particular girl and probably the sincerest thing I've ever done in my time on the show. So this implication of any insincerity out of her mouth about me really boils my blood."
The Wisconsin native joined Kaitlyn's season of The Bachelorette later and he ended up making it to the final two. She sent him packing before accepting Shawn Booth's proposal. The two were together for about three years before they split in November.
Nick called Kaitlyn's personality "funny and snarky," which he likened to his own. "Snarky" nature aside, he doesn't always appreciate what comes with the territory jokes-wise.
"I have been a convenient cheap joke for her, but I am extraordinarily sensitive about that topic. It always bothered me that at least publicly and in reality, there seems to be this contentious relationship," he said.
Although, no, he doesn't have Kaitlyn's phone number anymore ("I think she changed it"), she slid into his DMs and asked him to hop on the phone. Nick beamed while summarizing the conversation and all the positive feelings that came out of it.
"It was a great conversation and it was a conversation that should've happened a long time ago," he said. "She was really gracious and I really appreciated it. It validated a lot of thoughts I had about certain things."
Nick "felt so much better after the phone conversation" and he got something else out of it too: closure.
He shared, "I truly believe that closure doesn't need to come from the other person. You can always get closure from yourself. Sometimes you're required to do that."
The podcast host continued, "She was really gracious and it was a nice conversation and it sounds like she's in a relationship now where she's comfortable enough to do that."
Kaitlyn is indeed in a very happy relationship with fellow Bachelor Nation member Jason Tartick, who competed for Becca Kufrin's heart a few seasons back.
Nick clarified that he "never had any animosity with Kaitlyn" but he just didn't appreciate that "every six months after I forgot about it there would be some remark or comment."
Kaitlyn shared her side of the story during an episode of LADYGANG. "He was like, 'What did I do to you?' And I was like, 'Yeah. Nothing. That's fair,'" she said. "And then he goes, 'Get a new joke.' And I was like, 'Again, very fair. I'll get a new joke.'"
In the end, Nick feels grateful that he and Kaitlyn spoke on the phone and cleared the air.
"It was a weight lifted off my shoulders," he explained. "I didn't realize how much I appreciated it until afterwards. It was really quite nice."
Nick's new episode of The Viall Files drops Wednesday, May 15 at 2 a.m.