WWE star Carmella sparked relationship speculation after she shared an intimate black and white photo with Corey Graves on her Instagram page Friday.
“The goal is to laugh forever with someone you take serious,” Carmella, whose real name is Leah Van Dale, wrote in the caption.
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Back in February, Graves’ estranged wife Amy Polinsky took to Instagram to accuse him of having an extramarital affair with Carmella. Polinsky, who has since deleted her Instagram account, also posted text messages between Graves, whose real name is Matthew Polinsky, and a third party, in which he allegedly criticized Polinsky.
However, there were reports that Graves and Polinsky were already separated when he began his relationship with Carmella.
While on The Bella Twins podcast in May, Carmella denied breaking up Graves’ marriage.
“Let me first and foremost say, I would never wreck somebody’s home,” Carmella told the Bella twins, reports Page Six. “That is not the life I’m about. I would never in a million years do that. I don’t care how hot the guy is, how in love I think I am, that is not the life that I’m about.”
Carmella teased that her story with Graves “plays out” in the upcoming season of Total Divas.
Graves also took to Instagram in February, denying he cheated on his wife in a now-deleted post. He also told Lillian Garzia on her podcast that the stories about his relationship were not right.
“The story that was making the rounds was not accurate,” Graves explained, reports Wrestling, Inc. “It was made out of anger and emotion and it wasn’t what it looked like. I had been out of the house and living on my own for quite some time before that whole situation.”
In that same interview, Graves said he and Polinsky only stayed together for their three children.
“My wife and I had both agreed that because of having the kids it became the reason why we had stuck around longer than we should have,” Graves explained. “Just because of the kids, you don’t want to throw that upside-down. My kids, especially my oldest, had told me, ‘Dad, the amount of time we get to spend with you now is more quality time.’ They see me roughly the same amount with my WWE schedule, which luckily they have grown up being used to my road life, so it is not that unfamiliar to them.”
Graves continued, “But now I feel like when I have my kids, it has to be the best possible quality time, whether we are going to a carnival, or to a movie, whereas when I was living at that house it was kind of like, ‘oh, hey, you can watch TV with me,’ but I wasn’t being as good of a dad as I should have been because I was dealing with my own stuff. But now I feel like my life is in a much different place, so I think it allows me to a much better father and dad than before.”
During Wrestlemania in April, it also appeared that Graves referenced his relationship with Carmella. He announced he is “F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S,” reports Ringside News.
Photo credit: Instagram/Carmella
