The WWE star’s first marriage to his high school sweetheart left him reluctant to commit
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John Cena and Nikki Bella shocked everyone by ending their six-year relationship just three weeks before their wedding.
The wrestling star has always been adamant he wouldn’t get married for a second time, so he surprised everyone by getting down on one knee and popping the question to Nikki in the Wrestlemania ring last year.
But yesterday the pair shockingly pulled the plug, with Nikki announcing their split just three weeks before they were due to tie the knot in a low-key Mexico ceremony on May 5.
The WWE star was previously married to his high school sweetheart Elizabeth Huberdeau from 2009 until 2012.
Cena’s first wife was his high school sweetheart – she was not famous and not associated with the WWE.
They married on July 11, 1009 but just three years later, in May 2012, John filed for divorce.
He blamed the breakdown of their marriage on a home remodelling gone wrong.
The big building project spun out of control and caused “unbearable strife” between the couple according to TMZ .
But Elizabeth, 38, accused John of cheating on her with multiple women during their divorce and challenged their prenup.
They eventually worked things out privately and the terms of their settlement were never made public.
Just four months after the divorce was finalised, John began dating Nikki.
But before their engagement last year, he always made it clear he didn’t want to get married for a second time.
Nikki’s struggle to get him to commit played out in all its glory on their show reality Total Divas, where John told her outright that babies were off the cards.
“I do want to be a mum,” she told him in 2013, admitting, “I feel like I’d be missing out.”
But he refused to budge, telling his then-girlfriend, “I’m going to choose my words carefully. I can’t give you that.”
According to fresh reports, Nikki, 34, was sick of being made to feel like she was dragging a reluctant John down the aisle kicking and screaming.
“He was making it abundantly clear that he was going into this gritting his teeth the whole way. Nikki is an amazing, talented, strong, one-of-a-kind woman. Anyone would be lucky to have her in their life — yet John acted more and more like he was doing her a favor by somehow conceding to go ahead and marry her,” a source told People .
“[Nikki] doesn’t need a pity proposal, a pity wedding, a pity husband… All the subtle and not so subtle ways he kept referencing what hard work it was to be in a relationship, all the ways he never wanted to change, how they didn’t need to see each other than often, etc.—it was just so hurtful,” the source added.
For his part, John hinted at his own heartbreak in a cryptic post, tweeting, “Hardship, loss, and humility are extremely difficult waters to navigate, but perseverance thru them builds a strength to withstand anything life throws your way.”