Nikki Bella & Artem Chigvintsev Have Intimacy Issues During Pregnancy

Studio City, CA - *EXCLUSIVE* - Nikki Bella holds onto her fiancé Artem Chigvintsev at the farmers market on Sunday. The two love birds, who are expecting their first child together, wait patiently on a cold Sunday afternoon. Nikki's baby bump can be seen growing as she lifts her sweatshirt to get some air. She munches on some bbq as they leave the market.Pictured: Nikki Bella, Artem ChigvintsevBACKGRID USA 1 MARCH 2020 BYLINE MUST READ: Phamous / BACKGRIDUSA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.comUK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com*UK Clients - Pictures Containing ChildrenPlease Pixelate Face Prior To Publication* — Image Credit: MEGA

Nikki Bella wasn’t feeling her best during the Dec. 10 episode of Total Bellas — and her confidence struggles stemmed from fiance, Artem Chigvintsev, not wanting to sleep with her. “Artem and I haven’t been having sex,” Nikki admitted. “So I’m around the house naked more than usual. I have to do something to get his attention. Artem’s not having sex with me because he’s afraid to poke the baby. I don’t know where guys think of this stuff!”

Even though Nikki explained to Artem that there was no danger of ‘poking’ the baby inside of her, he was still hesitant. Plus, he didn’t love the fact that she was walking around without her clothes on, and skinny dipping in their pool in the daytime. “As I’m sure everyone’s aware, Nicole is very open and sexual about things and she doesn’t hold back,” he explained. “It’s very hard for me to accept because I was raised in Russia. Culturally, it’s two separate planets.”

Nikki added that Artem stopped wanting to be intimate with her “the second [her] belly popped” during the pregnancy. “He legit won’t touch me,” she complained. “He gets weirded out. He won’t even touch my boobs. Can you imagine right now, as a woman, how I’m feeling? It doesn’t feel great when your man doesn’t want to have sex with you. It’s the worst feeling in the world. It’s pure rejection.”

So, Nikki asked her sister, Brie Bella, to convince her husband, Bryan Danielson, to have a conversation with Artem about what was going on. Despite feeling super “uncomfortable,” Bryan took one for the team. “It’s a mental thing,” Artem told Bryan. “There’s a whole baby in there!”

Luckily, Bryan had a solution at the ready. “I read this thing about how it’s good for the baby for the mom to experience orgasms,” he said. “So there’s that — if you take it as a job. I’ve never told Brie this and you can’t tell [Nicole]. I looked at it like a job — here are the things I have to do. I have to read to the belly, I have to give her an orgasm. [Our daughter] Birdie is so healthy and happy and all that stuff. You’re only going to get to experience this right now and maybe one other time and only for a couple of months, so enjoy the uniqueness of it.”

After the conversation, Artem had a whole new outlook. He even surprised Nicole in bed with blindfolds and strawberries to bring the romance back in their relationship. “Bryan definitely helped me realize that, apparently, a lot of men go through the same thing,” he concluded. “The solution will be…take Bryan’s words, turn off the lights and try really hard not to think of the baby. I do want Nicole to feel beautiful. I do think she’s very beautiful, and I do feel like this was a step closer toward mentally unblocking myself and getting back into the way it’s supposed to be.”