Nick Viall Says He "Hasn't Defined Any Relationship" After Rachel Bilson Dating Rumors Swirl

Bachelor fans have a lot to be excited about at the moment. The season finale of Bachelor in Paradise revealed three engagements (including a queer relationship!) and the announcement of the new Bachelor, Peter Weber. But there’s an even juicier piece of gossip that’s been circulating the internet the past few days, and it involves an old Bachelor fan-favorite. Nick Viall's quote about rumors he's dating Rachel Bilson are adding fuel to the Internet firestorm about these two. Could the former Bachelor and actress be an item? It might be too soon to tell.

Elite Daily spoke to Viall at an event for the dating app Plenty of Fish on Sept. 17 in NYC. When asked if he is dating Bilson, Viall smiled and said, “I’m not really defining any relationship these days, but Rachel is cool.” He added that he sometimes feels “overwhelmed” by the public attention on his dating life. “People want answers fast. People want answers before I even know I have answers, you know?”

So, might this mean that he and Bilson just haven’t made things official? “All I’m saying is I haven’t defined any relationship I am or am not in,” Viall coyly tells Elite Daily. Whatever could be going on between them, he’s not keen to reveal any details. Elite Daily reached out to Bilson’s representative for comment, and did not hear back by the time of publication.

Rumors about Viall and Bilson have been swirling since was a guest on his podcast The Viall Files on July 24. Before the episode, Viall posted a photo of himself and Bilson on the couch together in his recording studio, with the caption, “Will we choose to forgo our individual rooms…” This flirty caption was an obvious nod to the Bachelor's Fantasy Suite. And Bilson went right along with it, commenting back, “He slid into her…..dms #sheaccepted.”

In the interview, Viall revealed that he literally slid into Bilson’s DMs to ask her to come on the show, knowing that she was a Bachelor fan. Bilson joked that he actually sent her nudes. Viall then admitted he had had a crush on Bilson since he saw her in the movie Jumper, which came out in 2008.

That podcast episode alone was enough to make people wonder if Viall and Bilson were more than just friends. Then, on Sept. 15, Bilson posted a photo of herself in front of a desert landscape, with the caption, “Climb every mountain.” Viall, not one to miss a moment, commented, “Nice mountains.” Smooth move with the sexual innuendo there.

While this flirtationship appears to still be in its early stages, Viall’s comments about Bilson certainly leave fans with more questions than answers. And if a relationship does start to form, Viall wouldn’t be the first Bachelor star to get involved with a celebrity from outside the franchise. Wells Adams and Sarah Hyland got engaged in July 2019 after over a year of dating, and Tyler Cameron has reportedly been seeing Gigi Hadid since his stint on The Bachelorette ended in early August 2019.

So, will Viall and Bilson become the next Bachelor/celebrity relationship crossover? As Viall said to Elite Daily, the people want answers. And if the flirty Instagram exchanges continue, fans might get more of a glimpse into what’s really going on here. For now, Viall is playing it cool.