Ever since John Cena made his WWE debut in the early-2000s, it has been exceedingly clear that he likes to be the center of attention. After all, when Cena is in the ring he does everything in his power to entertain the masses and he turns his personality up to eleven when he makes talk show appearances. It also has to be noted that since his acting career began to truly take off, Cena has teased major roles he may take in the future in order to keep people talking.

Given all of the effort that John Cena has put into making sure that all eyes are on him, it may seem like he would never want to stop anyone from bringing up his name. Despite that, there is another beloved star who used to play a major role in his life who once claimed they can’t legally say Cena’s name anymore.

Related: Here's Why John Cena Stayed A Top Star In WWE For So Many Years

Cena’s Most Talked About Relationship

After John Cena got divorced in 2012, he asked out another wrestler who goes by the name Nikki Bella and they went on their first date later that same year. Before long, Bella and Cena were in a committed relationship and they even moved in together in 2013.

Even though John Cena and Nikki Bella’s relationship moved very quickly, it also seemed clear that the couple was on very different pages in a lot of ways. After all, Bella simply wanted to share a home whereas Cena was determined that she had to sign a cohabitation agreement before she moved in and he wanted her to follow a long list of rules. On top of that, it was obvious that Bella wanted to get married and have kids with Cena someday but he was opposed to both of those things.

Amazingly enough, the fact that Nikki Bella and John Cena had extremely different plans for their futures didn’t stop the couple from building a life together. In fact, over time, Cena proposed to Bella at WrestleMania 33 in 2017 and she accepted in front of a huge crowd. Unfortunately, Cena and Bella’s relationship wasn’t meant to go the distance as the couple split less than a month before their planned nuptials.

Related: Is John Cena Still In Contact With His Ex-Fiancée, Nikki Bella?

A Very Public Breakup

When John Cena and Nikki Bella announced that they’d gone their separate ways, loads of people who cared about the couple were very upset. As it would turn out, Cena and Bella would give their fans reason to believe that they could reconcile. For example, at various points, Bella stated that “there’s definitely hope” of the pair reuniting.

Most notably, in 2018, John Cena was a guest co-host on the Today show, and while talking to Hota Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford he spoke at length about his desire to get back together with Nikki Bella. In fact, not only did Cena talk about how hard the breakup had been on him and his desire to have Bella back in his life, he said something that shocked many. “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.” Unfortunately, even following that heartfelt plea from Cena, he and Bella would not wind up getting back together. Despite that, people still wonder if Bella and Cena are in contact.

Related: Did John Cena React To Nikki Bella’s Recent Pregnancy?

A Wild Claim

Since Nikki Bella and John Cena’s breakup, both of them have moved on with their lives. After all, Cena got married to a woman named Shay Shariatzadeh in 2020, and Bella is engaged to and has a son with Artem Chigvintsev. However, since their split, Bella has claimed that Cena retained a surprising measure of control over her.

In late-2018, Nikki Bella and her twin sister who goes by Brie Bella were interviewed by Cosmopolitan. Since it had only been a matter of months since she split from John Cena at that point, it makes sense that the interviewer asked Nikki about the relationship at that time. In addition to saying that she didn’t want her “breakup to define” her, Nikki claimed that she “can’t say (Cena’s) name, legally, anymore”. In the article that resulted from that interview, it says that after that comment, Nikki “shares a knowing smile with Brie that makes me unsure whether it’s an inside joke or if she’s serious.”

While the Cosmopolitan article makes it unclear how serious Nikki Bella was when she claimed to not be able to say John Cena’s name, some of her later statements may shed some light on that. In 2020, Nikki and Brie Bella released a memoir titled “Incomparable”. During an appearance on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, Nikki stated that John Cena had some of the things she wrote about their relationship removed from the book.

“It definitely… writing it, that stuff did cross my mind, it did. And there was never anything bad I wanted to say about John. John and I had a beautiful relationship. Did we have struggles? Yes. Will anyone ever know about them? No. [inaudible] Overall we did have such a beautiful relationship.”

“I mean WWE also had editing rights and took out a few stories as well,” Nikki said. “And I respect that. I understand that I’m not a private person and some people like to be private, but even with the stuff that was edited with John, there was nothing crazy bad.

“I just wish I was able to talk more about why I ended up where I ended up. I still feel like people always will wonder that, and I think it’s just because we put our relationship out there on reality TV for 5 or 6 years. So, I wanted to tell that story, but… yeah, so…”

Next: Nikki Bella Is Expecting A Baby With Her New Man, But John Cena's Name Keeps Coming Up