Have you been following the John Cena and Nikki Bella drama? Me too, and I'm not even a wrestling fan. But sometimes you just really want to see a couple succeed! So, when these two broke things off, seemingly out of the blue and just weeks before they were heading down the aisle, it hurt my heart. But here's the thing: We shouldn't count this couple out quite yet, because based on what John Cena and Nikki Bella have said about each other over the years, and more importantly since the split, there is a very good chance that not only are they going to reconcile, but that they probably already have. Yes, love (maybe) lives!
Let's examine the evidence. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, here's a little back story on the couple. Although they had been friends for years in the wrestling world, John and Nikki officially began dating in 2012. Four years later, they got engaged in front of the whole world in the wrestling ring at WrestleMania 33, and spent the next year basically gushing about how in love they are, so we were all shook when, out of nowhere, the couple announced their split just weeks before the May 5 wedding date. So, what went wrong? And how did they get back on track, if the rumors they are back together are true? Our best evidence is what they've said about each other over the years. Let's start at the beginning.
John and Nikki began dating in 2012.
From the very beginning, both John and Nikki were not afraid to gush about each other. They both recounted how it all started.
In June 2013, Bella shared the story with Diva Dirt saying John’s opening line was “‘Hey, do you want to go to dinner with me?’ and I was kind of like, ‘WHAT?! With me?!’ When you’re friends with John for so long… It just kind of started out like a dinner date and I have to admit we were friends for so many years but then when you make it romantic, I couldn’t even say a word to him.”
John shared his own version of the story with PopSugar in 2017, saying, "I was brave enough to be like, 'Hey, would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?' and she said, 'Yes.' I was overjoyed."
By 2015, the couple was getting serious.
In an interview with E! in September 2015, Nikki offered some insight into their happy relationship by sharing how the couple continued to make each other a priority despite their busy schedules, as well as the fact that perhaps marriage was in the couple’s future.
"We do date night every week and we always dress up for each other... He always puts on a suit, I put on a nice dress and we'll go to a nice dinner," she revealed.
"Every time I come home, he'll always have a dozen roses and a card waiting for me," she said. "It never gets old. It's truly amazing."
"He truly is my knight in shining armor," she confessed. "I definitely think in the future people will be surprised where we end up because I'm seeing him more open to marriage. At least we're taking steps forward, and I honestly couldn't imagine my life without him."
Nikki and John get engaged in April 2017.
John popped the question in an extremely public fashion by dropping to one knee in the ring at WrestleMania 33, and the following day, the couple went on The Today Show to talk about the proposal and how long it had been coming.
John explained:
“She's been by my side through a lot of surgeries. And I make a joke, because I know when they put you under anesthesia, you've like 20 minutes where you're out of it, and you can talk, but you don't remember what's going on. So I always ask her, 'You know they're going to put me under, ask whatever you want, and you're going to get the answer.'
So when they put her under, I made sure to be the last person to wheel her to the OR, and right at the moment of no return I stopped the doctors and I leaned down, and I asked if she could hear me. She said 'Yes.' So I said, 'Well I have one question for you.' She said, 'What?' I said, 'You know, someday I'm gonna marry you.' And she said 'Yes.'"
Nikki confesses that John doesn’t want children.
After the proposal, the press took a lot of interest in the couple's future, and in an interview with People on April 11, Nikki shared that John was not open to them starting a family, although Nikki thought that he would be a good father. She told People, “[John] says it's selfish but he knows that with his schedule he couldn't be an incredible father and that's why he chooses not to have kids, and I actually respect that because that would be very hard to raise a kid on my own and the dad to always be gone and not see that kid.”
This was confirmed with an interview that John gave to Rolling Stone, in which he told the magazine,
"I know I cannot handle raising a child. It's like with the dog. My biggest thing to Nicole about the dog was: Love dogs, but I can't contribute to taking care of one. I don't have the time. And just because everyone else is happy with children doesn't mean that's how I have to live. I've been upfront about this. I just have things I need to get done. It's not negotiable. We've been to therapy over it. I don't think it will ever be over with. I'm stubborn as fuck and extremely selfish as well. I don't want kids, I don't want marriage. That's me just saying, 'Hey, this is my life and this is how I'm going to live.'"
The wedding is still on track in July 2017.
Despite their differing desires around children, the couple was still on track for their dream wedding, as Nikki told The Knot that John was happy to let her plan her dream wedding. “The one thing he told me was, ‘Nicole, I want you to do everything. I want it to be your perfect day,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Well I want you to join me.’ And he said, ‘Well, I want it to be everything you want.’ So it’s really cute. I know… He treats me like a queen.”
In January 2018, the couple celebrated their engagement party.
The couple seemed to be all smiles in January, the day of their engagement party. John shared that sentiment with a message on Twitter saying, "Such a wonderful, meaningful, emotional day yesterday with the woman of my dreams and both of our families, I love you Nicole, you've made me realize the importance of togetherness."
The cracks begin to show by March 2018.
In an interview with Us Weekly, John said,
“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. 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.”
But they still seemed mostly solid in early April 2018, while promoting John's latest film, “Blockers.”
John told People that the fans were already referring to Nikki as his wife, and he was very happy with that fact, saying, “People come up to me and say, ‘I love watching your wife on television...' And I love that. I’m already ready to go there and it sounds nice hearing it. I know that we will have a wonderful future together.”
They announce their shocking split.
When John and Nikki announced their breakup less than two weeks before they were set to be married, people were completely caught off guard, especially because in the lead-up to the wedding.
The couple gave an interview to E! News in which John declared, "I think the best thing about me being able to ask her hand in marriage was she doesn't need to question my commitment to our relationship. I am with her to death do us part."
This was followed on April 15 by another joint statement, this time to Us Weekly, announcing that they were calling it quits, saying, “While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another. We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives.”
John really struggled after the split.
Later that same month, Entertainment Tonight's Carly Steel asked John how he was dealing with the breakup and he said, "It sucks... There's no other way to say [it]. I love Nicole with all my heart, and that's that."
Then things took a more hopeful turn.
On May 14, comments from both John and Nikki revived our hope for those crazy kids to reconcile and finally walk down the aisle and... wait for it... even start a family.
In an interview with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on Today, John confessed he is having a change of mind when it comes to kids saying, “I love her. I want to be with her. I want to make her my wife. I want to be the father of her children. I just want us to work.” What? OK, that's a good sign! He also added that the breakup has really forced him to do some self-reflection.
“It's up and it's down. It's been incredibly reflective, which is amazing, but it's very difficult," he said. "I had my heart broken out of nowhere … for for me it was out of nowhere. Anyone who has experienced that knows it comes with a series of bad feelings.”
This interview apparently shocked Nikki, in a good way, so much so that it had her sharing with Entertainment Tonight that she has real hopes for the couple's future now. “John is such an amazing man," she confided. "He really is the love of my life. I truly hope one day that we can work it out and get back together. I think there is hope.”
Same, girl, same.
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