Why does this reference fail?

I believe with UMG bind functions, they are executing more or less on Tick, so perhaps there are a few frames after construction and before you are setting your variables where the bind function is attempting to reference it. If you just simply put an IsValid check before attempting to read from these object variables inside the Bind functions, do these errors appear and does your logic not work?

More information here: Is Text binding function[UMG] a tick function?