Nikki Bella wore the dress she bought when she was engaged to John Cena to marry Artem Chigvintsev

April 2024 · 3 minute read

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Nikki Bella revealed her wedding included one big reminder of her ex-fiancé John Cena: her wedding dress.

In August 2022, the wrestler, 39, married Artem Chigvintsev, 40, who she met on "Dancing With the Stars" in 2017, as US Weekly reported. They welcomed a son on July 31, 2020.

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Bella and Chigvintsev have shared few details of the wedding, as a special about the event, "Nikki Bella Says I Do," is set to air on E! on Thursday.

But ahead of the premiere, Bella spoke to US Weekly about her wedding dress, revealing that she wore a gown she bought when she was engaged to John Cena.

Nikki Bella was previously engaged to John Cena. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube and Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Bella and Cena, 45, started dating in 2012, and Cena proposed in 2017. They later broke up in July 2018 after almost calling it quits months before, as People reported.

Despite their relationship ending, Bella kept the wedding dress she bought during their engagement and wore it to marry Chigvintsev. She told US Weekly she kept the gown because she had "the moment" when she first tried on the gown and wearing it left her with a sense of "empowerment."

After going "back and forth" about whether or not she should wear it for her 2022 wedding, Bella told US Weekly she chose to wear the dress because she didn't want her past to dictate her actions.

"For me, it [reflects] how I stand as a strong woman," Bella told the outlet. "I was like wait, 'Why should I not wear what I love? Because of my past?' It just didn't make sense to me."

She also felt confident in her decision because Chigvintsev didn't care that she was engaged to another man when she bought the dress, as she said he saw it "as just a material thing."

Nikki Bella, left, and Artem Chigvintsev arrive at the Kids' Choice Sports Awards on Thursday, July 11, 2019, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Chigvintsev told US Weekly he thought people having "an issue with" the dress was them "bringing some other energy into our happiness."

"Why would we want to even waste time talking about it?" he told the outlet. "It did not bother me at all."

US Weekly also reported that the dress she bought during her engagement to Cena was just one of four gowns Bella wore to marry Chigvintsev. In October, she told Brides she chose her ceremony dress just 30 minutes before she got married.

It was unclear if the ceremony gown was the dress she bought during her engagement to Cena.

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