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Nikki Garcia (formerly Nikki Bella) shared how it was to run into her ex-fiancé John Cena for the first time after their 2018 split.
Garcia sat down with Kristin Cavallari on her podcast, Honestly Cavallari: The Podcast Tour, and shared how the encounter went.
“I was in a circle talking to people. He came to [shake] everyone’s hand,” Garcia told Cavallari on Wednesday's (June 25) episode.
“We just said, ‘Hello, good to see you. I think last time we were engaged. I don’t know, it’s been a while.'”
Garcia added that the conversation at the 2025 Royal Rumble didn't linger out of “respect” for the WWE icon's relationship with Shay Shariatzadeh.
The brief encounter between Cena and Garcia happened about “seven [or] eight years” after they decided to part ways.
Their relationship played out on E!'s Total Bellas, a reality show centering Nikki and her twin sister Brie Garcia, who is also a former WWE wrestler. Cena popped the question in 2017 and were planning to say “I do” to one another until figuring out that their futures did not align. While Nikki wanted to be a mom and start a family, Cena was against the notion.
“After I called off the engagement, we tried to work on our relationship to get back to where it was in order to move forward with our wedding,” Nikki said in a statement to Us at the time. “After much time and soul-searching alone, and together, we have decided to officially part ways. I had a beautiful and loving six-year relationship with a wonderful man. I have the utmost respect for John, but I know this is what’s best for me.”
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Ultimately for Nikki, having a child was a non-negotiable.
“Nikki and John truly love each other, but they will never have the same view on a perfect future,” a source told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “Nikki has always dreamt of having a family of her own and John does not want children and that was the main cause of their break up.”
How Are Nikki Garcia and John Cena Now?
Nikki's sister Brie, who has two children, a daughter named Birdie and a son Buddy Dessert with her husband Bryan Danielson gave her a clue into what she wanted her own future to look like.
“[She] sees her sister's life and wants to have that too,” the source notes. “Nikki thought at one point she could get past wanting children and that her love for John was enough, but as time went on, she has realized her dreams of a family would never happen with John. She couldn't get past the idea of not having her own baby.”
Cena married Shariatzadeh in 2020. Shariatzadeh and Cena met for the first time when he was in Vancover at a restaurant. One of Shariatzadeh's friends asked Cena for a photo and he then asked for her number, he told Howard Stern in 2024.
As for Nikki, she ended up marrying dancer Artem Chigvintsev in 2022 and they have one son together. They ended up getting divorced two years later and are now co-parenting their son.
“Artem and I, right now, are in a great place. We are co-parenting so amazing and it makes Matteo's life so amazing,” she said on her podcast she co-hosts with her sister The Nikki & Brie Show. “And I don't want it any other way. That's why when all of this came up, it sucks because things in Matteo's world right now [are] so great because Artem and I are so on the same page and I want that.”
