It is a dark day in the wrestleverse as WWE star John Cena and his fiancée, two-time WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella, have officially split after six years of dating.
While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another,” the couple revealed in a statement to Us Weekly. “We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives.”
Nikki shared the statement on Twitter and Instagram and added a message to their fans: “We love you all ❤️”
John proposed to Nikki at WrestleMania 33 on April 2 of last year after the two had been dating since 2012. Although social media is already jammed up with reactions from shocked and saddened fans, the break up had been hinted at by both John and Nikki.
In the first preview trailer for the new season of Total Bellas, both Nikki and John hold hands and appear tearful as Nikki asks, “So we really wanna call this off?” That’s the cliffhanger end to the trailer:
In the most recent preview trailer, released just last week, we see a little more of the scene with some additional dialogue:
JOHN: I will never force you not to be a mom.
NIKKI: I thought I could completely sacrifice that and I just can’t.
JOHN: I’m not sure we should go through with this.
John spoke with Us Weekly last month about the difficulties in making a relationship work:
“Relationships are hard. Don’t ever think that love is easy. Love is beautiful, but we’ve had to come to the realization after being together for five years that love is not easy,” Cena said. “We work every day on us. We have our problems just like everybody else. Some of our problems are very public, some of them aren’t. But we work every day on us. Anytime I get upset, I always just realize that I can’t live without her and I love her and that’s why I cave in on a lot of stuff.”
Starting on Saturday, John teased the break up with a series of Instagram posts about heartbreak — with one of them literally being a photo of a broken heart:
He followed that with a quote from Walt Whitman that reads “We were together. I forget the rest.” And John also tweeted about how Walt is his go-to guy when he’s feeling down:
Anybody feeling down, check out #WaltWhitman has always been a helpful voice in times of crisis. Beautifully wild thinker, and was certainly onto something with ideas like these. pic.twitter.com/tGl3p9smFl
— John Cena (@JohnCena) April 15, 2018
After John shared an Instagram photo of Full Metal Jacket actor R. Lee Ermey, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 74, he summed up his day with the help of The Simpsons‘ resident curmudgeon, Comic Book Guy:
True dat ?
If you want to have John and Nikki deliver the five knuckle shuffle to your emotions, I assume you can see the break up play out in its entirety on the new season of Total Divas, which premieres Sunday, May 20 at 9/8c on E!
