Nikki Bella reflects on her ‘traumatising’ breakup with John Cena: ‘I just knew it was right’

Nikki Bella reflected on her “traumatising” breakup with John Cena and why she decided to call off their engagement back in 2018.

The 38-year-old professional wrestler recalled how she broke up with Cena after six years together during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. Bella shared that it was quite difficult for her given how “loving” it was.

“You almost wish it was bad, because it’s so much easier to walk away,” she said. “It’s so much harder to walk away when it’s loving.”

She went on to describe how she was unsure about her future with the WWE star and that the idea of spending the rest of her life with him didn’t feel “right”.

“I think a lot of women get into this situation when it’s like, ‘I love this person, but I don’t know if it’s right for my life,’ and that’s a hard thing,” Bella continued. “Sometimes we meet amazing people, but we’re just meant to live a different life.”

Although the wrestler acknowledged that it was the right thing to “walk away” for Cena, she still confessed how “traumatising” it was to do so.

“I just got this feeling so deep in my gut of, like, ‘I need to walk away.’ And no one thought I would, but it was hitting me so hard. Even though it’s painful and even traumatising, I just knew it was right.”

Bella and Cena first started dating in 2012, with the Bumblebee star proposing to her at Wrestlemania in 2017. However, after a year of being engaged, the couple officially split.

In 2020, Cena started dating Shay Shariatzadeh and the pair got married in October of that year. Earlier this week, in pictures obtained by TMZ, the couple also appeared to have another wedding ceremony in Vancouver, Canada.

Following her split from Cena, Bella has been dating Dancing with the Stars pro dancer Artem Chigvintsev since 2019. Together they share a one-month-old child, Matteo.

During the ET interview, Bella expressed how trusting her “gut and intuition” has brought “good things” her way.

“This is when I know how God is good -- and believing your gut and intuition and following through, good things happen,” she said. “It’s hard to see it in the moment.”

This isn’t Bella’s first time opening up about her personal life and family. She spoke onThe Bellas Podcast in June about having baby fever. And after having a “detailed conversation” with her boyfriend, she said that they decided to “wait” before having a second child.

“Because I was like, ‘You know, I do have baby fever, but I don’t know. Is right now right? Maybe do you want to try for a girl?’ And actually, Artem was like, ‘We need to wait,’” she explained.

“How our life is right now with work, with Mateo and his age and the attention we give him,” she continued. “He prefers to wait a few years. And I was like, ‘I’m good with that.’”