Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace is a television personality and a former WWE wrestler, where she is known under the name, Nikki Bella. She fought alongside her sister, who took up the name Brie Bella and the two have become household names. Bella, 38, also stars in Total Bellas with her sister, which has aired since 2016 on E!. But it wasn't until she competed on Dancing With the Stars that her life changed for the better.
Artem Chigvintsev is a Russian-American professional dancer, specializing in Latin dance. He has performed on Broadway and is even the winner of Strictly Come Dancing. Chigvintsev has competed on Dancing With The Stars for ten seasons, winning one mirrorball trophy with Kaitlyn Bristowe. When he was partnered with Bella on season 25, everything suddenly changed and they started dating.
Here's a look inside Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev's relationship and why they haven't said 'I do' yet.
9 How Nikki Bella And Artem Chigvintsev Met
Nikki Bella got cast on the 25th season of Dancing With The Stars in 2017 and was partnered with Artem Chigvintsev. They had a lot of chemistry on the show and fans started to speculate if they were a couple or not, but the two had kept saying they were just friends, as she was still linked to John Cena at the time. Bella and Chigvintsev placed seventh.
8 News Of Their Relationship Surfaced
After Bella and Cena split for good in July 2018, news had surfaced in January 2019 that the former WWE wrestler and Chigvintsev were dating and had been for some time, according to sources from US Weekly. Their relationship was first featured on an episode of Total Bellas, where they enjoyed a lunch date together. However, Bella insisted they were both still just friends in February 2019.
7 Confirmation Of Their Relationship
However, in March 2019, on the season finale of Total Bellas, the pair had confirmed that they were in fact a couple. Once the finale aired, Bella took to Instagram to confirm it herself. "Well after that season finale 😳 First thing I’ll be talking about this Wednesday... oh and all those paparazzi photos (thanks for all the great shots 🙄 and smashing my food 🙄 lol)," captioned a photo of her kissing her boyfriend on the cheek.
6 Their Relationship
Despite them confirming their relationship to everyone on TV, Bella confirmed on The Bellas podcast that they were not monogamous yet. “Yeah, we’re dating. … There’s been a lot of speculation about us … but I’m still dating [other people],” she said. However, they were still documenting their dating life all over Instagram when they showed off their cooking skills, went to Disneyland and attended red carpets together. The couple even attended Dancing with the Stars pros' Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson's wedding together in April 2019. But three months later, she gushed on her podcast that they were official!
5 Their Previous Dating History
Before these two found each other and fell head over heels in love, the reality TV stars have been linked to other people. Chigvintsev has been linked to professional dancer Giselle Peacock. They were married in 2004 but split a year later. Then he moved on to Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba in 2006 and they dated for three years before calling it quits. He was linked to another partner in 2010- his Strictly Come Dancing partner, actress Kara Tointon, but sadly they split in 2014. Right before Bella, there were rumors that he went on a few dates with DWTS partner, Misha Barton, but nothing was confirmed.
Bella has not been linked to as many people as her fiancé has, but it is worthy to take a look back at them. At just 20 years old, she married her high school sweetheart, but no one knew of his identity. The couple got married in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, but the marriage was annulled three years later. In 2008, she dated wrestler, Dolph Ziggler, who were both new to the wrestling scene at the time. Most notably she was linked to former wrestler John Cena in 2012. The pair even got engaged but called it quits in 2018. She has been with Chigvintsev ever since.
4 Nikki Bella And Artem Chigvintsev's Engagement
Just about a month after meeting Chigvintsev's parents, Bella and the professional dancer announced their engagement publicly in January 2020. However, they had already been engaged for two months, as stated in Bella's Instagram post. Fans thought she might have been moving on too fast after her break-up with Cena, but they had no idea the next announcement that would be made. They began wedding planning straight away.
3 A Bouncing Baby For Nikki And Artem
At the end of January 2020, Bella posted a photo to her Instagram of her fiancé clutching her stomach with the caption, "Baby Daddy." News came just weeks after her sister announced she was having a baby. They wound up being two weeks apart. In August 2020, Bella confirmed that they welcomed their first child, a son, together on July 31. They named him Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev.
2 Their Original Wedding Plans
As soon as they got engaged, the couple started planning their wedding, but they had a lot of bumps, literally in the road. With the COVID-19 pandemic happening only a few months into their engagement and a baby on the way, they had decided to postpone their wedding. They originally wanted to get married Thanksgiving 2021, but that has come and gone and they are not yet Mr. and Mrs.
1 Why Nikki Bella And Artem Chigvintsev Haven't Tied The Knot
The Total Bellas star revealed to E! News Daily Pop why they haven't gotten married yet, besides COVID and a baby altering their plans. "Once we know his parents can get visas, we'll plan our date," she told the outlet. They want their whole family there and with his parents living in Russia, it is hard to do that. They are hoping that by next Thanksgiving they will be finally married.