Totally relatable! Nikki Bella admitted that her nerves were in play before meeting the parents of her boyfriend, Artem Chigvintsev.
“It was the first time Artem saw his parents in five years and his brother. He was so nervous and excited and emotional,” the Nicole + Brizee cofounder, 36, revealed on “The Bellas” podcast on Wednesday, December 4. “They all got really emotional when they saw each other. They cried. I’m not gonna lie — I was really nervous.”
Recalling her first encounter with the dancer’s family, Bella shared that they faced a roadblock while trying to communicate because Chigvintsev’s parents don’t speak English.
“They don’t know English. I don’t know Russian, but somehow we made it work,” she dished. “It’s crazy when you’re put in the situation where you have a language barrier and you’re forced to communicate without speaking.”
The retired WWE wrestler added that Chigvintsev’s parents are “the sweetest people in the world” and that her beau’s family seemed to like her “a lot.”
Bella and Chigvintsev first met in 2017 while partners on season 25 of Dancing with the Stars. At the time, she was engaged to former longtime boyfriend John Cena, who is currently dating Canadian engineer Shay Shariatzadeh. (Bella and Cena, 42, called off their engagement in April 2018.)
After much speculation, the reality duo went public with their rumored romance this past March when the Total Bellas star posted an Instagram pic of herself kissing her beau. “Well after that season finale 😳 First thing I’ll be talking about this Wednesday… oh and all those paparazzi photos,” she said, referencing her relationship and hit E! show’s finale.
In July, Bella spoke with Us Weekly exclusively about how relieved she was to no longer have to hide her romance with Chigvintsev.
“Oh my gosh. It feels so good!” she said at the time. “I don’t have to hide it. I’m such a grabby person, like so PDA. And there’d be times I would just want to grab him so much, and then I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, I got to pretend like I don’t know you.’ But it’s fun. It’s nice ’cause now it’s kind of like having freedom. We could do whatever we want and it’s all good.”
