Nikki Bella recently announced that she and John Cena were separating after six years together, but it seems Cena is still close to the family he spent so many years getting to know.
Speaking to PEOPLE at in celebration of World Immunization Week, co-hosted by Rotary International and Red Nose Day, Bella’s twin sister, Brie Bella, shared that she is still in contact with the wrestler and actor.
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“We’ve already exchanged like 5 text messages,” she said. “I will always love John as a brother, and I will always look at him like that.”
“If one day our relationship fades than so it does, but as of right now I want to be there for him as much as I’m there for my sister,” Brie explained. “And Nicole respects that. He will always be family.”
Bella and Cena started dating in 2012, and Cena proposed during WrestleMania in April 2017. Bella announced their split just weeks before their planned May destination wedding in Mexico.
“It’s like losing a family member,” Brie said of the pair’s breakup. “It’s really hard. John has been a part of our lives for six years.”
Both Bella and Brie have been extremely open with fans since they began appearing on reality shows Total Divas and Total Bellas, and Brie told People that her sister’s breakup will be chronicled on television.
“I have to give a lot of credit to John and Nicole,” Brie said at the Nirvana Food and Wine Festival in Arizona. “They really opened up their lives. They wanted to close the curtain and be like, ‘This is it, we’re done.’ My sister is great with her fans in a way where she lets them connect with her … and lets them see the playbook of her life.”
The 34-year-old added that both she and her husband, Bryan Danielson, didn’t know if they would have allowed cameras to film the “very personal conversations” Bella and Cena did.
“To be honest, I was mind blown,” she said. “Bryan and I both said we didn’t think we’d allow them to see those conversations, but they do. I give them a lot of credit. You get to see where they’re at today and see that unravel.”
Brie also gave an update on how Bella is coping, comparing her sister to Wonder Woman.
“She’s good — they call her fearless Nikki for a reason,” Brie shared. “She always puts on that brave face. My sister has more strength than any other woman I know, especially Wonder Woman. She’s bigger than that.”
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