diff --git a/lib/model.js b/lib/model.js
index bbbdc124806..fe40fe373ce 100644
--- a/lib/model.js
+++ b/lib/model.js
@@ -3598,7 +3598,15 @@ function getModelsMapForPopulate(model, docs, options) {
           if (typeof ref === 'function') {
             ref = ref.call(doc, doc);
           }
-          modelNames = [ref];
+
+          // When referencing nested arrays, the ref should be an Array
+          // of modelNames.
+          if (Array.isArray(ref)) {
+            modelNames = ref;
+          } else {
+            modelNames = [ref];
+          }
+
           isVirtual = true;
         } else {
           // We may have a discriminator, in which case we don't want to