Nikki Bella’s Mom, Kathy Colace, Refused to Have Artem Chigvintsev in Family Photo

Things are getting tense in Nikki Bella‘s family on Thursday’s episode of Total Bellas as her mother, Kathy Colace, aims to exclude Artem Chigvintsev from the group photo. In a sneak peek of the E! reality show, which airs at 9 p.m. ET, Bella wonders if she should stick up for her fiancé when her mother attempts to take one family photo with the former Dancing With the Stars pro and one without.

“I question sometimes if Nicole’s really taken her relationship seriously. That’s the reason I’m more cautious with Artem. This is my birthday present. My family together in a family photo,” Colace admits in her confessional. But Bella can’t imagine asking her beau to step aside, telling her mom, “I think his feelings would be so hurt. But you’re talking to him. You’re doing that. I’m not.”

Bella explains of her reasoning to the camera, “It’s her family photo so I’m going to let her take full control. I don’t want to be a part of it. Whatever happens, it’s on her. She’ll deal with it. And she’ll feel bad.” Colace, meanwhile, doubles back on her initial stance, saying she does “want him in it,” but adds, “I just … I don’t know if I want him in a 20 by 40.” As a compromise, Colace says she will take two pictures and put the one with Chigvintsev in it up when he’s over.

Bella and Chigvintsev first met on Dancing With the Stars in 2017, but only turned their relationship romantic after the former wrestler broke off her engagement to John Cena in April 2018. In January 2019, the new couple went public with their relationship, with Chigvintsev popping the question in November 2019 on a romantic vacation in France. In January, both Nikki and her twin sister, Brie Bella, announced they were pregnant.

Last month, Nikki penned a romantic note to the father of her unborn child on social media: “They say love conquers all…and it sure does. So many people in the beginning said it was just lust, my feelings weren’t real, it was just the dance, the infatuation, the mystery of this person, but I knew & felt it was always more. I listened to my heart, my soul, my body, I knew deep down that this was God’s gift, his answered prayer. You never know when He will answer it, when it will come, it’s never the timing we desire, or at least we don’t think it is.”