Nikki Bella talks 'painful and even traumatizing' breakup with John Cena: 'I just knew it was right'

Nikki Bella, who is now happily engaged to her former Dancing With the Stars partner, Artem Chigvintsev, recalled her tough breakup with her former longtime love John Cena in a new interview.

The WWE stars began dating in 2012 and became engaged five years later, but they ended their relationship less than a month before they had planned to wed in May 2018.

"I think a lot of women get into this situation when it's like, 'I love this person, but I don't know if it's right for my life,' and that's a hard thing," she told Entertainment Tonight. "Sometimes we meet amazing people, but we're just meant to live a different life. ... I just got this feeling so deep in my gut of, like, 'I need to walk away.' And no one thought I would, but it was hitting me so hard. Even though it's painful and even traumatizing, I just knew it was right."

But that doesn't mean it wasn't complicated.

"You almost wish it was bad, because it's so much easier to walk away," she said of the relationship. "It's so much harder to walk away when it's loving."

Cena was openly upset in the days after the breakup.

"It's been incredibly reflective which is amazing, but it is very difficult — I had my heart broken out of nowhere, or for me, it was out of nowhere," Cena said on Today. "And anyone who has experienced that knows that it comes with a series of bad feelings."

The Peacemaker star said then that he still hoped to make the relationship work.

Fast forward four years, and both he and Bella have moved on.

Cena had a second wedding to Shay Shariatzadeh last week in Vancouver. He first married the engineer in October 2020 in Tampa, Fla.

Meanwhile, Bella is planning a wedding with Chigvintsev, whom she began dating in 2019. The dancing pro is the father of her son Mateo, who turns 2 on July 31. She said the couple is working on bringing her Russian fiancé's family over to America for the big event.