Better safe than sorry? John Cena once made his ex-fiancée Nikki Bella sign a lengthy prenup of sorts before moving in with him.
The 40-year-old wrestler discussed the 75-page agreement during an October 2016 episode of Total Bellas.
“It is like buying a handgun for home defense. It gives you a sense of security and it gives you a fail-safe in case something happens,” Cena told Bella’s brother JJ Garcia at the time. “And those who buy a handgun for self-defense pray, pray they never have to use it. Without it, it’s a dogfight. With it, it is very easy.”
The champion fighter spoke candidly about the agreement again in March during his visit to the Today show. “I was very abrasive and stern and she had to sign this huge, crazy agreement just to come in the front door,” he recalled to Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. He added that the document was “just some sort of thing where I would be protected in case of a disaster.”
Cena said on the Today show that the Total Divas star, 34, signed the document “totally without question and it made me feel super bad, which it should have, but it also made me realize, like, this is one young woman I should not let get out of my life because she says, ‘I’m with you because I love you, here’s proof I would still like to be here.’”
Although the Trainwreck actor and Bella have since called it quits, he told Gifford, and Kotb he would have had her sign an actual prenup before their May 5 marriage “to protect her because she is an independent woman and she has made her own money and she is proud of that and she stands for that.”
Us Weekly broke the news on Sunday, April 15, that the WWE fighters called off their wedding and broke up after six years together. A source exclusively revealed to Us that Bella pulled the plug on their relationship because “she’s in a place where she’s just exhausted by some of the things going on in the relationship.”
Added the insider: “John is the love of her life [and] she adores him. They still speak. It’s just very hard. But right now she just has to focus on herself.”
The duo, who got engaged in April 2017, have been vocal about their conflicting views on having children, a point of tension that contributed to the breakup. While Cena was adamant about not wanting little ones, Bella was eager to become a mom.
“John doesn’t want to have kids, so it’s taken a lot of therapy to be OK with knowing I won’t be a mom,” Bella told Us in December. “I’m not going to lie: Tthere are times when I still pray that one day he’ll change his mind. But as of now, no family.”
Cena opened up about parenthood while promoting Blockers in March, telling Us that his role in the film as an overprotective father has “made me more comfortable in possibly wanting to be a dad.”
Another factor that pulled the pair apart was their contrasting personalities. A pal told Us that while Cena is shy and guarded, “Nikki has to find Nikki. She’s in a great place with her career, has an amazing family who will be with her through this entire journey and she needs some time to figure it all out.”
