Celebrity Parents

Nikki Bella Shows off ‘Real’ Postpartum Body After Welcoming Son Matteo With Artem Chigvintsev

Nikki Bella is getting candid about her postpartum life. On Monday, the Total Bellas star took to […]

Nikki Bella is getting candid about her postpartum life. On Monday, the Total Bellas star took to Instagram to show off “the raw and real me” after welcoming her first child, son Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev, with fiancée Artem Chigvintsev in late July.

One month after welcoming her little one, Bella stripped down on her Instagram Story to nothing more than a black sports bra and matching bottoms to celebrate her postpartum body. In a video, which can be viewed on The Blast by clicking here, the WWE alum admitted that she was hesitant to reveal her post-baby body to the world, though she “felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Videos by PopCulture.com

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nikki Bella (@thenikkibella) on

“I felt like it was the right thing to do, because I feel like sometimes on social media and people in the spotlight truly don’t showcase how hard postpartum can be. Here I am!” Bella said in the clip, going on to reveal that she is “18 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.”

Vowing to document her journey for her fans, Bella joked that some of her weight came from pizza and “having too much fun.” She said that she is “now on a journey to lose 18 pounds but in the most healthiest way possible because breastfeeding, obviously, and giving my son the most amazing nutrition is number one.” The mom-of-one said that “all the curves, all the changes, the hard work to get my body back in shape” is “worth it… because I have the most amazing little boy ever!”

Bella also offered some words of encouragement to her fellow moms who are experiencing the same things in postpartum life. She acknowledged that “it isn’t easy seeing your body change, physically, mentally, all the changes of postpartum, I feel you,” adding that “we are exhausted on top of it.”

She went on to reveal that not everyone’s postpartum journey is the same, evidenced by her twin sister Brie Bella, who welcomed her second child with husband and WWE star Daniel Bryan just a day after Bella welcomed Matteo. Bella said that her sister, who recently revealed that she is 13 pounds away from her pre-baby weight, “just looks so good and then I try to copy her and… yeah.” She added that ‘our mom lives, right now, are a bit different. She has two, I have one.”