“It has been such a whirlwind romance,” says Nikki Bella, 36, at the start of the new preview Total Bellas. In the promo for the upcoming season, the WWE Superstar raves over her romance with her soon-to-be hubby and baby daddy, Artem Chigvintsev, 37. “We have just been caught in this tornado of happiness, paparazzi, media.” Though their relationship has been under greater media scrutiny, to the point where Nikki says it’s “been insane,” she wouldn’t change a single moment. “[It’s been] so worth it.”
In a moment of unintentional shade towards her former fiancé John Cena, Nikki put her current relationship above all by saying, “never in my life had such a passionate connection with someone like this.” Nikki and John ended their six-year relationship in April 2018, right before they were supposed to tie the knot. Since then, the Total Bellas star struck up a relationship with her Dancing with the Stars partner, and every day has since been an explosion of romance and euphoria for Nikki. “Even when we hold hands, or we kiss, or we dance, it’s constant fireworks 24/7.”
It hasn’t always been passionate fireworks for Nikki. “Everyone says, ‘You just have this lust thing. It’s not real, it’s gonna wear off, you’re gonna get sick of him,’” she says. Spoiler alert – she doesn’t. Artem and Nikki got engaged in November. In January, one year after she and Artem started dating, Nikki and twin sister Brie Bella announced that they were both pregnant. So, to all those who think Nikki and Artem’s romance is fake, she has one message to you: “You only hate it because it’s the real deal.”
This season of Total Bellas will capture the moment Artem proposed, the moment that Brie found she was pregnant again, and more. What it won’t have is any intentional disrespect towards Nikki’s ex. She preemptively shot down any talk of “shading John Cena” during the Mar. 4 episode of the Bellas Podcast after her “cryptic” tweet was interpreted as such.
“I hate always talking about this, but it was bothering me, and I really want to clarify something… My ex-fiancé is not the only man that I have loved in this world. I was in love three times before him, he was the fourth person I loved, and I have loved after him, and I still love,” she said. “I think what kind of sucks is when you have a public relationship, any time I want to post a quote, or I want to share words of wisdom, everyone always thinks I’m talking about him.”
Total Bellas premieres on April 2 at 9/8c on E!
