Nikki Bella Reveals the Real Reason She Left John Cena

Nikki Bella is opening up about her split from John Cena more candidly than ever, admitting on Better Together with Maria Menounos Wednesday that she ultimately decided to call off her engagement in 2018 due to fears he would “regret” becoming a father. While Cena bowed to Bella’s desire to have kids together after she initially got cold feet about their wedding, the Total Bellas star explained she didn’t think he would be able to stand by that down the line.

Telling Menounos that overall, she and Cena had an “incredible relationship,” Bella explained in the end “it was just two people that wanted two different lives.” Despite trying to make things work and Cena’s effort to compromise on kids, Bella admitted, “I could just tell, it’s not what we wanted.”

“And that’s really, like, you know, what pushed me in the end, was like, if I’m going to force someone to be a father…what if he looks at you down the road and just regrets everything, and then you have this child and you’ve built this life. Is that what you want?” Bella continued, recalling the moment she realized that kind of future wasn’t what she wanted.

Breaking up after six years together wasn’t easy, but Bella soon found her most “vulnerable” connection yet in Artem Chigvintsev, with whom she was paired on Dancing With the Stars prior to her split from Cena. “I remember, we danced, and I was like, ‘Whoa, someone hasn’t touched me like that in like, six years!’” Bella revealed, adding that for the first time in her life, she had to open herself completely up emotionally and find a “softer side” of herself with Chigvintsev during the competition.

“I had found this new Nicole…It kind of made me not want to put up with a lot of s—,” she continued. “So when I had to go back to my real life, and there were things that were not great, I was like, ‘I’m not going to forget who I just became.’” Although Bella and Chigvintsev kept their relationship completely platonic throughout their time together on DWTS, the two reconnected after she became single. The rest is history, with the couple announcing in January they are expecting their first child together ahead of their upcoming wedding. Better Together with Maria Menounos airs Monday through Thursday at 11 a.m. PT on Maria Menounos’ YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, as well as anywhere you stream podcasts.