John Cena and Nikki Bella’s breakup stunned the wrestling (and E! watching) world last month as the longtime couple called it quits for still unknown reasons. There have been a number of rumors about why the two broke up, from Cena reportedly “ruining” their relationship because he still wasn’t willing to really change to Cena becoming overwhelmed by the publicity around their wedding.
Cena has been off TV for a couple weeks as he takes a rare, non-movie shoot related vacation that was supposed to coincide with his honeymoon and he has been having a hard time post-breakup, as tends to happen.
On Monday, Cena popped over to Today to sit down with Hoda and Kathie Lee to provide an update on how he’s doing and clear the air on his side of the story regarding the breakup. You can tell Cena’s not doing great in the interview and he is adamant that he wants Nikki back and that he wants to marry her and be the father of her children.
“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.”@JohnCena updates us on how he’s doing since his split with Nikki Bella. pic.twitter.com/YEJPMzXNbe
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) May 14, 2018
“It’s been incredibly reflective. Which is amazing. It’s very difficult,” Cena says. “I had my heart broken out of nowhere, or for me it was out of nowhere. Anyone who’s experienced that knows that it comes with a series of bad feelings. But I’ve looked at myself every day and evaluate myself and the woman that I love, and for anyone out there speculating on, like, what i’m doing with my life now. I still love Nicole. I still would love to marry Nicole. I still would love to have a family with Nicole. There was an unfortunate set of circumstances where our relationship ended.
“There’s been a lot of speculation recently about me being seen in public and everyone is thinking, ‘Oh, John Cena is enjoying the single life.’ No, I was supposed to be married and have a honeymoon over these two weeks. It’s the first time in 15 years I’ve taken a vacation. I am in my house alone surrounded by these emotionally strong memories, and every day from 6-9 I get out of the house to go talk to strangers as social interactions.
“So there are a lot of pictures of me like, ‘Hey I’m here with this person. Hey, I’m here with that person.’ I don’t love anyone else. I love Nicole. And I’m trying to support her in trying to find what she wants which made this fall apart in the first place. In doing so, I’m also trying to live. I don’t have any other hopes other than maybe one day we can work it out.”
A couple things are apparent here in this interview. One is that Cena seems genuinely hurt by the breakup, but also that he’s more hurt by the fact that he’s been cast as the bad guy in this situation and that the breakup was all his fault. He mentions the breakup came “out of nowhere” (Randy Orton’s music hits) and that their relationship fell apart because she is “trying to find what she wants.”
There’s some serious pain in this response from Cena and it’s hard not to feel for him, especially when he talks about forcing himself to get out of the house and “talk to strangers,” which means he has to put on the Cena character for three hours and interact with folks. We likely won’t get down to exactly what happened for some time (or, at least when it’s shown on Total Bellas this season), but Cena insists he still wants to be with Nikki and have a family, so maybe there’s hope for reconciliation in all of this.
